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LABACE organizers offered guarded optimism for business aviation in Brazil as they gave a preview of Latin America's largest business aviation fair, opening Tuesday at Congonhas Airport in São Paulo.
“We hit the low point in 2016, and it's not good now, but it's improving,” said Leonardo Fiuza, chairman of LABACE organizer ABAG (the Brazilian association for general aviation), emphasizing recovery of both the fleet and operations. But Fiuza added, “business aviation reflects business,” and the recovery is still fragile: at the start of 2018, economic growth of 4 percent was expected, but that dropped to 1.5 percent after a national truckers' strike in May. Upcoming presidential elections are also a big unknown, he said.
Even so, attendance is expected to increase at LABACE 2018, as Brazil remains the world's second largest general aviation market. This year's event is expected to host 47 aircraft, about the same as last year, with Embraer bringing its entire lineup and Cirrus bringing the Vision Jet for its first public showing in Brazil. Avic Harbin is not bringing an airplane, but will have a booth to highlight its Y12E and Y12F, with certification still pending in Brazil.
ABAG CEO Flavio Pires explained that despite the physical shift in the space used at Congonhas Airport, the area for aircraft and exhibitors remains the same. Exhibitors once again will occupy the historic hangar, with the static display area shifted away from the avenue. “But the display will still be cozy,” Pires promised. The auditorium is now located beside the exhibits and static display, and will feature a lineup of speakers “in the style of NBAA and in line with the goals in ABAG's charter,” he added. While the static display and exhibition hangar will be open from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. (8 p.m. on the last day), the auditorium program will start at 10 a.m. On Wednesday and Thursday morning one stage will be dedicated to the medevac market that is emerging in Brazil.
Piracy in aviation will be a theme of the first day, encompassing not only gray-market charters but also uncertified repair facilities, parts, and importation. Brazil's top aviation official, Secretary of Civil Aviation Dario Lopes, will discuss long-term goals for the country's general aviation. Embraer founder Ozires Silva will be the keynote speaker at the opening session on Tuesday morning.
The aircraft start rolling into the static display at 2 p.m. today.
The sixteenth LABACE, opening on Tuesday, August 14 at Congonhas Airport in São Paulo, shares the advantages and challenges of operating in the southern hemisphere’s largest city. Some things remain the same as past years, but there are changes that can be disorienting. Here’s a guide to let you hit the ground running.
LABACE Layout
Part of the old VASP installations where LABACE takes place have been leased out by airport authority Infraero. The area that’s gone is the registration and auditorium area alongside Avenida Washington Luis, below runway level, and part of the runway-level area, where Dassault traditionally stationed its jets, visible from the avenue.
The visitors’ entrance is now the former exhibitor’s entrance, at Rua Tamoios, 361. A square arch announces LABACE on a background of blue sky. Those arriving by automobile will have to head down Washington Luis and turn around, as before, but coming back toward the airport, turn right just before the pedestrian overpass and head up Tamoios. ABAG has arranged valet parking inside the gate.
Once you’ve found the gate, the static display layout is more convenient: the walkway is circular, stranding none of the exhibitors at the far end. Visitors enter through a tent that has an atrium, credentialing, administration, and the press rooms, including AIN’s; a four-stage auditorium area, and beyond that to the left, entrance to the exhibition hangar.
Perusing the booths and leaving the hangar through the doors at the far end, the walkway starts and soon has a branch to the left between Synerjet’s Pilatus display and TAM’s Textron aircraft, leading to the restrooms. Following the walkway clockwise, the next branch is between Lider/HondaJet and Dassault, and leads to the food court, again this year featuring food trucks. The next branch, between Gulfstream and Bombardier, dead-ends in a mini-tent that is a mini-bus terminal: shuttles authorized to transit through the airport’s airside carry VIP guests from the Congonhas VIP rooms of TAM, Lider’s and Icon’s FBOs, or carry potential purchasers to used-aircraft lots on the FBOs’ ramp space.
Passing by Embraer, the pathway threads through smaller exhibitors, including MAGA, which last year brought its portable Bombardier service center, Campo de Marte aircraft dealers Gualter (pre-owned helicopters) and J.P. Martins (Piper); Kodiak from Anapolis, Goiás; Diamond, represented by Aeromot from Porto Alegre; Helibras, aka Airbus Helicopters Brazil, with offices at Campo de Marte and factory in Itajubá, Minas Gerais; logistics firm AGS (we’ll get back to AGS) sharing space with heliport Helipark; Leonardo; and we’re back at the VASP hangar.
LABACE 2017 was cold and wet, saved from disaster by a prudent five days of patching of the historic hangar’s historic (in the bad sense) roof, and a stockpile of generously sized LABACE umbrellas. This year, the prediction calls for warm and sunny, or at worst partially cloudy, from now through Wednesday, colder and possibly raining on Thursday. Because of São Paulo’s altitude, early mornings and after sundown can quickly grow chilly, but the forecast is for a minimum of 8°C (46°F) to 30ºC (86°F). The chalets this year were erected under constant rain, following several months of uninterrupted drought. Rain is in the offing once the visitors have left and it’s time to strike the tents and tear down the chalets. But with a sweater, exhibitors whose duties start and end with the fair, should be fine.
Parties
LABACE’s schedule differs from that of other shows, starting late and running late, and it also features many, many parties. The largest, loudest and best is usually that of AGS, featuring beer and live music, sometimes going on until ABAG throws the circuit breakers. Rained out last year, it should be back in full force this year. Organizers put AGS’s stand under a tent, just in case.
Culture in São Paulo
São Paulo doesn’t have a beach. For recreation, paulistanos eat (we’ve focused on restaurants convenient to Labace, but there are many great places to eat, and many guides to them) and go to concerts and plays (which are in Portuguese, of course). Monday is the usual day off for people who work in entertainment. Here are some suggestions this week in São Paulo where the language barrier is minimal, with music, ballet, and theater:
João Bosco. Great name in MPB - “Brazilian popular music”. Tuesday, August 14, 21:00 Teatro Porto Seguro, Alameda Barão de Piracicaba, 740, center, 226-7300 Tickets R$150-R$180. New theater in a recovering neighborhood, go and return by taxi and don’t linger.
Romeu e Julieta. Ballet de Santiago. If you’re staying at the Hotel Transamerica, and leaving the day after the fair finishes, it’s around the corner, Thursday, August 16, 21:00 Teatro Alfa, Tickets R$50 to R$220.
L O B O - (“W O L F) “A spectacle of terror mixed with dance and theater … with themes related to passion, death and eroticism”. Saturday, Aug. 11 and Sunday, Aug 12 at 19:00. Teat(r)o Oficina, Rua Jaceguai, 520. R$40
Getting around São Paulo
Taxis are not expensive. The danger of the city is largely overrated, but obvious foreigners run more risk than natives. Public transit is safe f you avoid speaking English in a large group, don't try adventure tourism in the far suburbs, and remember to pack comfortable shoes. Bus and subway fare is R$4; you get in the bus by the front door, pay the collector at the turnstile—don’t use a bill larger that R$10—and exit through the rear. The elevated subway track that runs in front of Congonhas Airport, planned for the 2014 World Cup, is still not done, which doesn’t surprise Brazilians. Google Maps will tell which bus to take to get where you want to go.