Commercial flight operations by Voepass have ceased due to Anac's decision.
Hear ya, mate! Let's ditch the jargon and cut straight to the chase.
Brazil's civil aviation bigwig, Anac, kicked Voepass, a local airline, off the flight deck. That's right; they yanked the Air Operator Certificate (AOC), the magical ticket that green-lights commercial airline operations. Without it, Voepass can't fly, plain and simple. This move effectively grounds their operations, which have been on hold since last year.
Anac slapped a temporary grounding on Voepass back in March, after spotting several issues during routine aircraft inspections that hadn't been fixed. Voepass tried to whine and plead for more time to present their case, but Anac ain't having it. They reckon Voepass had enough time to tackle their chronic problems and didn't.
In a recent powwow about the situation, Voepass argued they deserved a chance to stay afloat and that the harsh penalty of revocation came too swiftly without giving them time to restructure. But the meeting's chair, Luiz Ricardo Nascimento, ain't buying it. He calls out Voepass's "ineptitude" and declared that revocation was the only option left on the table.
This crackdown on Voepass kicks off after a tragic air accident on August 9, 2024, where a turboprop went down in Vinhedo, killing 62 souls. Voepass's equipment was inspected post-accident, and a report published in May by Folha De S.Paulo uncovered at least five structural failures by the company, such as fuselage deformation, cargo door fairing damage, and wing-fuselage joint cracks. Yikes!
Anac's inspection showed these defects in four different aircraft. They claim there was no record of any delayed corrective actions or notifications about this damage. Over a year and a half, from August 2023 to February 2025, a whopping 15 administrative sanctioning processes were opened against Voepass by Anac.
In April, Voepass threw in the towel and filed for judicial recovery. So now you know the tea on Voepass's struggles with the big-wigs of Brazilian aviation. Stick around for more tense airline dramas!
Individuals within the aviation industry are raising concerns about the financial stability of Voepass, a troubled airline, given the repeated findings of structural defects in their aircraft by Anac. The strain on Voepass's business operations, as a result of the grounding and administrative sanctions, has forced them to seek relief through judicial recovery in April.
Despite the severe consequences, Voepass's persistent failures in addressing finance-related issues, such as fixing identified structural problems and meeting operational standards set by Anac, have damaged the industry's trust and financial reliability, potentially hindering their future growth and collaborations with other businesses within the sector.
