Brazil airport upgrade missing deadlines

[SAO PAULO] Brazil promised the world it would roll out the red carpet at 21st century airports for this year's World Cup, but soccer fans landing in Fortaleza, which will host six matches including a quarter final, will instead be shepherded through a temporary canvas structure.

The delays at Fortaleza are the latest embarrassing evidence that several crucial upgrades will not be ready when the tournament starts in mid-June. The deadline for a new airport terminal in Fortaleza has been pushed back to 2017. "The provisional structure is not what we wanted, but it's what we have to resolve the problem in Fortaleza," Wellington Moreira Franco, Brazil's Civil Aviation Secretary, told local media late on Monday.

Work on Brazil's chronically overcrowded airports is much further behind schedule than the construction of new stadiums, many of which have missed deadlines and run over budgets, but should be ready for kickoff according to World Cup organisers.