The airport, located on reclaimed land on a peninsula to the immediate north of Guanabara Bay, was the host city's first airport and is known for having several of the world's shortest runways.

It initially catered for international flights, but since the opening of the Galeao International Airport, has been purely used for domestic journeys, although it still services around 3.2 million passengers per year.

The airport will be closed for four-and-a-half hours a day during the 10-day Olympic sailing competition in order clear airspace for helicopters to film the events, the Government announced after months of debate on the issue.

There had also been complaints from athletes that low-flying planes could disrupt races.

The closures will be in effect from 12:40pm to 5:10pm local time from August 8 to 18. with airlines having complained how it could "paralyse" air travel and affect more than 150,000 passengers.

"The cumulative audience for the 2016 Olympic Games is estimated at five billion viewers and the sailing competitions are among the best images of Rio that television broadcasters will show the world," said Brazilian Sports Minister George Hilton.

"It's important to reconcile the organisational demands with the airport's needs."

Sailors had also complained that low-flying planes could disrupt races.

"Obviously there will be inconveniences, but we all recognise that it's justified given what the Olympics will bring," added Jacques Wagner, chief of staff of Brazilian President, Dilma Rousseff.

No such closure is planned for the Paralympic sailing competition.

This comes as Guanabara Bay continues to face international criticism over pollution levels on the course, although the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) appears to have ended speculation that competition could be moved farther out into cleaner waters away from the coastline. 

An ISAF releasedpraising August's test event on the Bay promised how they would continue to monitor water quality and conduct more testing on the Flamengo Beach launching area.

They will also monitor the progress of closing down landfill sites, to increase the numbers of eco-barriers, while working with Rio 2016 on a heavy rainfall contingency plan to ensure a clean and fair field of play. 

This came after one of the courses used for the test event was closed during the regatta due to obstacles deposited there after heavy rainfull. 

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