[14] At the end of the war, Santos Dumont Airport was unable to handle the increased tonnage of aircraft flying on international routes and number of passengers.

The services were however precarious and a decision was made to build a brand new passenger terminal, opposite to the Air Force Base, across the runway.

As proof of the airport's prestige, the Concorde made its scheduled maiden flight with Air France on 21 January 1976, flying from Paris–Charles de Gaulle to Galeão via Dakar.

On 6 June 1967, in response to the growth of air traffic in Brazil, the Brazilian government initiated studies concerning the renovation of airport infrastructure in the country.

As part of the conclusions of these studies, because of their location, strategic importance, and security issues, new passenger facilities would be constructed in the Galeão Air Force Base in Rio de Janeiro and the São Paulo Air Force Base in São Paulo.

During the year 1991, Passenger Terminal 1 underwent its first major renovation in preparation for the United Nations Earth Summit held in 1992.

[21] On 26 April 2011, it was confirmed that in order to speed-up much needed renovation and upgrade works, private companies would be granted a concession to operate some Infraero airports among them, on a second phase, Galeão.

[26][27] The new concessionary, RIOgaleão, has revised, modified and upgraded those plans to include the construction of a new pier with 26 new bridges, a new apron for 97 aircraft, and 2,640 car-parking spaces have been added in 2016–17, which would sum up to R$2 billion reais.

[35] However, the circuit was not included in the 2023 Stock Car Pro Series calendar due to the increase of flights after the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2020 positions inverted and in 2022 Santos Dumont was accounting for approximately 63% of the total traffic of Greater Rio de Janeiro, spread into three airports.

[1][37] In order to control and revert this abnormal trend, on August 10, 2023 the Civil Aviation National Council issued an order to restrict Santos Dumont services to airports located within 400 km maximum from Rio de Janeiro and without international services.

[38][39] Following resistance from the international aviation community, on November 8, 2023 the restrictions were reversed and replaced by an annual cap of 6.5 million passengers transiting at Santos Dumont Airport, starting in 2024.

[40] The facility covers a total of 1,788.2 hectares (4,419 acres),[41] being the largest airport site in terms of area in Brazil.

There are executive (blue) and ordinary (yellow) taxis available and bookable on company booths at arrival halls of both terminals.

TransCarioca line of the BRT integrated public transportation system links Terminals 1 and 2 with Terminal Alvorada in Barra da Tijuca with an intermediate stop at the Line 2 subway Vicente de Carvalho station, where one can access the entire subway system.

At TIG, several urban bus lines and Rio de Janeiro Light Rail system are easily accessible.

Media related to Rio de Janeiro (state)/Galeão - Antônio Carlos Jobim International Airport at Wikimedia Commons