Governador Island is the largest island in Guanabara Bay, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It has a population of about 211,018 inhabitants, in a small area of 42 km².
Rio de Janeiro's main airport, Galeão - Antônio Carlos Jobim International Airport, and the Galeão Air Force Base are located on Governador Island and occupy about a third of it, in the western and northwestern parts. A small sea inlet that once existed on the northwestern shore was landfilled to build the airport's runway 10/28, thereby increasing the island's area.
Often mentioned by cariocas simply as Ilha, Governador Island has some favelas, such as the not pacified Morro do Dendê, the largest one, but it also has many middle-class neighborhoods and even the third better IDH index in the city, the Jardim Guanabara neighborhood. The island is connected to Fundão Island and to the mainland by a complex of expressway bridges and through a barge in Cocotá Terminal, transporting passengers to downtown in Rio.
The name means "Governor's Island" because one of the first colonial governors of Brazil built a country house on the island in the 16th century.