LABACE is celebrating its 15th year, sponsor ABAG (the Brazilian Association for General Aviation) is marking its 25th and the first half of this year has seen the country's business aviation recession finally flatten out, ABAG chairman and TAM Aviação Executiva president Leonardo Fiuza told the press at a briefing before the Latin American Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition opens on Tuesday.
ABAG executive director and CEO Flávio Pires, who took over in the midst of show planning from long-time chief Ricardo Nogueira, offered what passes for optimism in this longest of modern recessions: “It's stopped getting worse.”
“The first half was better than last year, but still not where the country would be in a normal year,” Fiuza said. The 50 aircraft on static display represent a record number of fixed-wing aircraft for LABACE, although the total including helicopters is below the pre-recession highs. Fiuza expected more visitors than ever at LABACE 2017, and he noted that sales of used aircraft have been less impacted than new, and that some areas have held out better than others. “Agro-business has been a pillar of sales, of new and old aircraft, the last few years. That's a fact.”
Pires revealed his hopes and plans in the executive direction of ABAG, observing that “São Paulo is the business capital [but] not just São Paulo, we'd be interested in other events elsewhere in Brazil.”
He opened with statistics showing the size of the Brazilian general aviation fleet—the world's second largest with more than 20,000 aircraft—and its importance, as commercial aviation serves only 130 airports in 115 municipalities. The rest of the country is reachable directly only by general aviation.
On the eve of the show, the mayor of São Paulo announced plans to close the country’s busiest general aviation airport, Campo de Marte, to fixed-wing aircraft. He is not the first mayor to promise that, but this time the plan may be more serious. The airport is home to many ABAG members and LABACE exhibitors, such as Airbus subsidiary Helibras. Fiuza confirmed that ABAG was not consulted, and he added, “ABAG isn't against all change, but wants to be a part [of alternative proposals].”
Pires observed that others are concerned with the airport, such as the association of airport neighbors and the aviation workers union. “None of the associations interested in the sector participated [in the decision],” he said. “It's easy to close [an airport] and hard to open another in this country, which already has insufficient infrastructure.”
Fiuza dismissed another question, about a bid request by Infraero, which manages Congonhas Airport, to lease out part of the area used by LABACE for retail use, the very auditorium where the conference was taking place. He noted that the area is downhill and well below runway level and not adaptable to aviation use, nor vital to LABACE. “If the entrance isn't available,” he said, “we'll use another entrance. Infraero looks with favor on LABACE.”
While neither the long recession nor the mayor's threatened closure dampened spirits for LABACE 2017, the final word may come from higher up. The display booths have moved from the tent used for the last two years back to the hangar that served LABACE for many years; and defunct state airline VASP for decades before. The hangar roof leaks, and the forecast is for rain.
