Air BP South America is highlighting at LABACE a newly launched initiative to offer its business-aviation customers in Brazil a way to offset their carbon emissions from burning aviation fuel, as one of two new programs the company is providing for bizav and general-aviation operators in the country.

Ricardo Paganini, Air BP South America’s general manager, told AIN that the company signed its first partner for the new bizav carbon-emissions offsetting initiative in June. That partner is Avantto, Brazil’s largest fractional-ownership operator.

“The carbon emissions related to the use of the aviation fuel supplied by Air BP to our customers may be offset via BP Target Neutral,” said Paganini. BP Target Neutral, which is a founding member of the International Carbon Reduction and Offsetting Alliance (ICROA), has been active for more than a decade—reducing BP customers’ CO² emissions by more than 3.1 million tonnes during that time—and forms part of BP’s Advancing Low Carbon accreditation program.

Air BP’s new Brazilian bizav carbon-emissions offset initiative “complements our carbon-neutral, into-plane fueling operations at 250 directly operated locations around the world, including a number of locations in Brazil such as São Paulo Guarulhos and Rio de Janeiro Galeão,” said Paganini.

Another initiative Air BP South America recently launched for its Brazilian bizav customers is an online platform. This consists of a central portal where customers can access many of Air BP’s services and can interact directly with its customer-service team, according to Paganini. The company also provides pilot lounges at many airports, in which pilots can spend time and rest between flights.

Air BP regards Brazil as a strategic market and is continuing to boost its presence in the country. “Air BP’s market share kept growing during the economic crisis in Brazil,” said Paganini, adding that in the first quarter of 2018 the company’s Brazilian market share had grown by about 35 percent compared with its pre-crisis share in 2014. “We have signed a number of new contracts recently, meaning that we expect Air BP Brazil to finish up the year with around a 20 percent market share.”

Having operated in Brazil since 2002, Air BP South America now has facilities at 26 sites throughout the nation, “most of them for business aviation,” according to Paganini. In addition to operating at major commercial airports in five of Brazil’s largest cities, the company has operations at many important Brazilian bizav airfields. Among them are Santos Dumont, Jacarepaguá, and Cabo Frio in Rio de Janeiro state; and Campo de Marto and the helicopter bases HBR and HLC in São Paulo. Air BP also has facilities at Brazil’s main bases for offshore oil-and-gas helicopter operations, including Vitória in Espírito Santo state and Cabo Frio, Macaé, and Jacareacanga in Rio de Janeiro.

Air BP South America has been active in Chile (with local partner Copec) since 2001, and Paganini said its general- and commercial-aviation sales there continue to grow. The company entered the Peruvian market in December 2016 through a joint venture with local partner PBF and has more than doubled its market share there thanks to Air BP’s global network bringing its international customers to the country, he said. Additionally, in 2017 Air BP began operations in Mexico, its fourth Latin American country market.