Airport staff in Rio de Janeiro’s Santos Dumont had never seen anything like it. Just 18 days before the start of the Olympics, security lines were so long they snaked around the entire second floor of the terminal.
The reason for the chaos at the city’s picturesque domestic airport centered on new security guidelines starting Monday that require passengers to go through checks as though they were flying international. Travelers in Brazil are not usually required to remove coins, belts or separate laptops for domestic flights.