Belo Horizonte Taxis Can Now Pick Up Passengers at Confins
A temporary measure now allows licensed taxis from Belo Horizonte to pick up arriving passengers at Confins Airport's Terminal 3, ending a 20-year
Taxis from Belo Horizonte are now permitted to pick up passengers at the arrival area of Terminal 3 at Confins International Airport (CNF). The authorization is a temporary experiment announced by the Confins Municipal Secretariat of Public Security, Transport, and Traffic (Transconfins) in an official communication published on August 28.
This change also allows taxis to circulate on the exclusive lanes used by the MOVE public transport system, Belo Horizonte's bus rapid transit (BRT) network. The full official notice was published on the Instagram page of Sincavirmg, the union for autonomous taxi drivers in Minas Gerais. The temporary permission also extends to taxis operating in the municipality of Lagoa Santa, part of the Belo Horizonte metropolitan region.
A 20-Year Prohibition Ends
For the past two decades, taxi drivers from the capital city had been barred from collecting passengers for return trips from Confins Airport. They were only authorized to drop passengers off. The prohibition began in 2006, following the transfer of flights from Pampulha Airport to Confins the previous year.
This long-standing restriction has been a central complaint for licensed drivers. They have argued that ride-hailing app drivers face no such specific permissions to operate at the airport, unlike taxis confined to a designated region.
Negotiations for Broader Access
The temporary measure comes amid wider negotiations about taxi circulation at the state's main airport. Exactly one year prior, on September 2, 2025, the issue of regulating taxi work at Confins was discussed in the Legislative Assembly of Minas Gerais. The current experiment at Terminal 3 indicates those talks are ongoing.
It is important to note the authorization's limited scope. Picking up passengers or boarding at Terminals 1 and 2 remains prohibited. The change applies solely to Terminal 3's arrival area.
Impact on Travel from the Airport
The shift provides arriving passengers with another immediate ground transport option directly from the terminal. For licensed taxi drivers, it represents a potential new revenue stream after years of being unable to service the lucrative airport return market.
The final status of taxi operations at Confins Airport depends on the outcome of the broader regulatory negotiations. For now, the 20-year ban has been partially lifted on a provisional basis.
