The two-day Heli XP show that ended yesterday in São Paulo, Brazil, is riding a booming local market. Due to the tight preowned market, reseller Gualter Pizzi was able to bring only four helicopters to show and sold an Agusta Power on the first day, while TAM Aviação Executiva sold a Bell that same day. “I brought 11 to Heli XP 2019, but I just don’t have enough machines,” Pizzi explained.
Trading firms—which not only handle importation paperwork but reduce taxes from 18 to 4 percent in Brazil—reported a booming trade. “We’ve done almost as much volume in the past year as in the previous 10,” Marcos Almeida of Razac Trading told AIN. Luciano Sapata, v-p of Sertrading, added, “We’re doing the same volume, but more expensive aircraft—fixed-wing above $10 million and rotary above $7 million.”
Timbro Trading predicts aircraft volume of R$500 million ($90 million) for 2021, while total volume grew from R$4.3 billion last year to R$7 billion this year, according to its head of aviation, Philipe Figueiredo. Gledson Castro of fair organizer G2C Events said that he’d sold out the 7,000-sq-m hangar at Heli XP host facility Helipark without difficulty, and the fair had received 1,600 visitors by the end of the first day. Exhibitors include major local firms such as Bell representative TAM AE and Lider, as well as Leonardo.