Despite frequent discussions about moving the Latin American Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition (LABACE) to another airport, the annual event held by Brazil business aviation association ABAG once again filled a space formerly occupied at São Paulo Congonhas Airport by defunct airline VASP. And, once again, it began with rain cloud overhead.
At the show's opening ceremony on Tuesday, Azul Airlines founder David Neeleman joined luminaries that included Brazil Air Force commander Marcelo Kanitz Damasceno, secretary of civil aviation Juliano Noman, ANAC president Tiago Pereira, IBAC chairman Ali Alnaqbi, and ABAG chairman Leonardo Fiuza and CEO Flávio Pires.
“LABACE has synthesized general aviation,” Noman said, “bringing together all the different companies that make up the industry, all—or nearly all—Brazilian.” On walking through the fair, he said, "I feel pride as a Brazilian.”
Sao Paul state's lieutenant governor, Rodrigo Garcia, recalled that it's rained for the last three LABACE shows (the 2020 and 2021 editions were canceled due to Covid). After three weeks of uninterrupted sun and heat, LABACE's opening day dawned with drizzle, not enough to clear accumulated pollution from the air, but just enough to settle the dust in time for the fair’s opening.
Representing Azul Connecta, a new airline flying Cessna Caravans to underserved destinations, Neeleman reflected on his birth in Brazil to missionary parents and his own missionary work in the northeast of the Latin American country. There, he said, was born the "desire to return to Brazil, land of my birth, and make a difference."
After founding JetBlue in the U.S., he returned to Brazil and started Azul "with a lot of help,” he said, acknowledging Infraero, ANAC, and the local team of Azul executives and employees. "Forty-seven million people a year were flying in Brazil when we started,” he recalled, “and now more than one hundred million do. And most of the new ones are [flying on] Azul.”
The ability to be connected, Neeleman emphasized, is “Important for us, important for Brazil.” Azul now serves 160 cities, 100 where no other airline goes, he explained. "In the Amazon, you go by Azul, by business aviation, or five days by boat.” Besides passenger connectivity, he emphasized Azul's role in logistics, bringing medicines and vaccines to cities otherwise unserved. "I could not be prouder of what Azul does for Brazil,” he concluded.