A record number of new exhibitors and preparation for new growth in Brazilian business aviation mark LABACE 2018. The number of first-time exhibitors is nearly 20 percent higher, up from the usual 5 to 7 percent, according to Flavio Pires, CEO of organizer ABAG, the Brazilian Association for General Aviation.

Before the fair’s opening, AVIC Harbin representative JCranes’ Jorge Theodoro dos Santos affirmed that the company will “install a center of excellence in São Paulo” and that it will manufacture its Y12E or Y12F twin-turboprop utility aircraft in Brazil, “with an investment [reflecting] the size of the Chinese government.”

Levon Aviation said that it has picked a location to manufacture its ground-power units in Brazil, helping aircraft operators with lower-emission and more electrically stable GPUs.

The Catarina Executive Airport project, absent from LABACE for several years, returns this year with a stand that suggests a major announcement, perhaps that the airport, long “90 percent complete,” will travel that last 10 percent. Four mobile apps—Airbus’s Voom, Flapper, air taxi association Abtaer’s CloudTaxi, and charter giant Lider’s own app—promise easier charter, including by-the-seat, and optimized aircraft usage.

Before the recession, aviation seemed headed toward intractable barriers, with airport infrastructure that had not been added to in decades, an air traffic control crisis, a looming manpower shortage, and any solution dependant on a government strangling in its own red tape and regulators hamstrung by inexperience. Despite the recession, there is progress on each of these fronts. Several major airports have been turned over to private concessionaires that have made heavy investments, and several more are scheduled for bid.

State airports that are key to business aviation were ceded to private enterprise last year and two purpose-built private BA airports in the São Paulo region are within reach of completion, though financially squeezed. Airspace authority DECEA is undertaking a redesign of the São Paulo terminal to increase capacity and efficiency, and including business aviation input in upcoming planning.

Civil aviation agency ANAC celebrated its 10th birthday this July, and as a heterogeneous collection of people who had simply passed a civil service exam has grown into a body of civil aviation professionals, rules are being more intelligently interpreted. Needed regulations are also being created, for example, rules specific to light sport aviation were issued earlier this year. Other rules have been eased allowing charter firms to grow into regional airlines and per-seat sales to open charter opportunities to more potential customers.

A panel on “The General Aviation We Want” planned for the opening day of LABACE 2018 will feature Brazil’s highest aviation official, Secretary of Civil Aviation Dario Lopes and Flavio Pires of ABAG. The panel will explore long-range plans for the country’s civil aviation industry, something that in the past has been surprisingly lacking for a country with the world’s second-largest fleet.  

Slow Recovery

The Brazilian civil aviation fleet shrank during the recession, which, said ABAG chairman Leonando Fiuza, “reached the bottom” in 2016. But in 2017, the trend reversed with a slight increase of 51 aircraft. While the numbers are back, the high-end aircraft that left at the depth of the crisis have not returned.  

For the present, buyers are waiting on the presidential election in October. The first debate was August 9, with the leading candidate unable to get out of jail to participate. Another major candidate on the right-wing labeled a “danger” by The Economist magazine, and most attention given to a minor candidate, an evangelical fireman given to democracy and fond of conspiracy theories, which bloomed into a meme of a pink Care Bear with a hammer-and-sickle on its chest. After the election, industry figures expect greater political certainty, a more stable exchange rate, and consequently the ability to make plans and make investments.

The agricultural sector, especially in the country’s vast center west, is a sector that has withstood the crisis. With commodity prices stable in dollars and expenses dropping in Brazilian reais, agribusiness has been prosperous. That has been reflected in a regional rise in the business aviation fleet, which farmers use for local and regional transport.

Perhaps the best sign of the industry’s optimism is LABACE 2018’s keynote speaker, Embraer founder Ozires Silva, who says of Embraer that “the reality surpassed the dream.”