Foreign Low-Cost Airlines Start to Land in Brazil

08/03/2018 - 14h16

In the last few years, Brazilian airlines fought for regulatory changes that would allow them to lower their costs, arguing that these changes would result in lower prices for the public.

They won some victories, like the permission to charge for checked luggage, but someone else beat them to the punch in the low-cost game: the foreign competition.

Anac (National Civil Aviation Agency) was informed this Thursday (2) that the Argentinian government authorized low-cost airline Flybondi to start an operation in Brazil. The company's request for the route São Paulo-Buenos Aires should be registered in Anac in the next few days.

The first request of a foreign low-cost airline in Anac happened a week ago. It came from Norwegian Air, one of the biggest players in the segment, which is interested in operating regular flights from Brazil to Europe.

	REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci/File Photo
	A Norwegian Air Boeing 737-800 is seen during the presentation of Norwegian Air first low cost transatlantic flight service from Argentina at Ezeiza airport in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Another airline going through Anac's authorization procedures is Argentinian, Avianca-owned, Avian. The agency declared that the company is already registered to operate sporadic flights, but it expressed intention of having a regular flight from Buenos Aires to São Paulo in September.

The road to the low-cost trend opened in Brazil after resolution 400, approved in December 2016. The new regulation tried to align Brazilian aviation rules to international standards.

According to officials at Anac, the main appeal for the foreign companies that now land on Brazil was the loosened rules regarding checked luggage, established in mid-2017, which allowed airlines to charge for the service.

Translated by NATASHA MADOV

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