Sim Brasil takes steps to become new Brazilian airline

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Representatives of Sim Brasil, the company bidding to become one of the new Brazilian airlines, have an agenda with ANAC for this week that would mark the beginning of the certification process.

The company, still in project, was born as Baufa Air, including the corporate name indicated in its fiscal identifier enabled on June 15.

However, the trade name was changed to Sim Brasil, presumably representing something more consumer-friendly.

The company expects to fly three Airbus A320ceo by the end of the first half of 2023.

Brasilia-based entrepreneur Galeb Baufaker leads the project. A team has been working on setting up the company from an office located in the São Paulo neighborhood of Jabaquara.

The process to obtain the concession, which will grant Sim Brasil permission to operate passenger and cargo air transport services, has five phases, takes months, and is costly.

At the end, when phase 4 of the process is reached, at least one aircraft needs to be in the country for ANAC to carry out ground and in-flight checks before granting the concession.

Part of the team carrying out the Baufa Air process comes from Itapemirim Transportes Aéreos (ITA), a company that suspended its operations in December last year.

Months later, businessman Galeb Baufaker Junior expressed his interest in acquiring what was left of Sidnei Piva’s company, whose main asset would be ITA’s air operator certificate.

To make this possible, Baufaker Junior would have to pay for all ITA’s debts to aggrieved passengers and former employees, negotiate with creditors and recover the company’s credit.

The task might seem feasible since the businessman declared that he was willing to contribute up to R$400 million (US$75 million) to the deal.

However, days after the announcement, he reneged on the deal under the argument that there was too much legal uncertainty surrounding Itapemirim. After that, ANAC canceled ITA’s concession to provide air transport services, thus destroying any possibility of reviving it.

Baufaker Junior had two alternatives: abandon the air transport business or start his new company from scratch. He would have opted for the second option.

With information from Aviacionline