  The aviation sector is profitable, but sensitive to economic fluctuations,
geopolitical constraints and governmental regulations. As for other means of
transportation, the relation between origin and destination results in a
complex map of routes, which can be complemented by information associated to
the routes themselves, for instance, frequency, traffic load or distance. The
theory of networks provides a natural framework to investigate dynamics on the
resulting structure. Here, we investigate the structure and evolution of the
Brazilian Airport Network (BAN) for several quantities: routes, connections,
passengers and cargo. Some structural features are in accordance with previous
results of other airport networks. The analysis of the evolution of the BAN
shows that its structure is dynamic, with changes in the relative relevance of
some airports and routes. The results indicate that the connections converge to
specific routes. The network shrinks at the route level but grows in number of
passengers and amount of cargo, which more than doubled during the period
studied.
