SUMMARY
The paper aims to evidence the impact of passenger traffic in the airports of major Brazilian tourist destinations and its relation to the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. To achieve this, the study performed a qualitative analysis based on secondary data obtained from official websites of regulatory authorities and a quantitative analysis through the use of multiple regression, cluster and discriminant analysis in order to measure a cause-and-effect relation between the variables observed. The tourist destinations addressed are the capitals of Brazilian federal states, the national capital (Brasília), and the cities of Campinas, Foz do Iguaçu, and Balneário Camboriú - the choice was made based on the cities with the highest number of airport passenger traffic. The results indicate a strong correlation between passenger traffic in Brazilian capitals and the spread of COVID-19 cases.