Experts such as Mr Bernasconi and the Instituto de Pesquisa Economica Aplicada (IPEA), a Brazilian research group, have long doubted Brazil's ability to make the necessary improvements to airport capacity in time.
Although only 6.3% of black 18- to 24-year-olds were in higher education in 2006, that was double the proportion in 2001, according to IPEA. (The figures for whites were 19.2% in 2006, compared with 14.1% in 2001).