SHOW
REPORT
10 | Flight International | 22 August-4 September 2017 flightglobal.com
Keep up to date with business
aviation news and analysis at:
flightglobal.com/bizavLABACE 2017
Brazil’s business aviation community celebrated the 15th
anniversary of LABACE from 15-17 August. Despite the
milestone, the cold rain that fell throughout the event
seemed like an apt metaphor for the state of the
country’s economy – and corporate jet sales. But there
are signs of recovery. After dropping for two straight
years, aircraft deliveries are inching up and fractional
ownership business models are gaining traction, ensuring
greater stability for the future. Stephen Trimble reports
Stephen Trimble/FlightGlobalA
fter launching four years
ago to provide fractional
ownership services for private
aircraft, Next Aviation’s rapid
growth stands in sharp contrast
to the three-year slump for Bra-
zilian business aviation and of-
fers a roadmap for the market
to recover.
In a debut appearance at LA-
BACE, Next Aviation announced
plans to expand from a single
base in rural Cascavel to three
new sites serving two of Brazil’s
largest urban areas – Curitiba and
São Paulo – and another rural
centre of Brazil’s agricultural in-
dustry in Ribeirão Preto.
The move will grow Next Avia-
tion’s managed fleet to 15 aircraft,
currently ranging in size from a
piston-powered Cessna 172 to a
Cessna Citation CJ1 jet, with theaddition of one Beechcraft King
Air and two Cirrus SR22s in São
Paulo, a Piper Seneca in Curitiba
and a SR22 in Ribeirão Preto,says Pedro Bizzotto, director of
operations for Next Aviation.
Next Aviation’s growth is the
reverse of the overall Brazilian
business aviation market, which
saw deliveries drop sharply in
2015 and 2016. A minor uptick
has been detected in the first half
of this year, but shipments re-
main far short of a level signal-
ing a sustained recovery. “We
started our company at the worst
possible moment,” Bizzotto says.
Despite the timing, Next Avia-
tion has flourished, with 100%
growth rates annually since 2014,
he says.
The company’s success is partSTRATEGY
Fractions adding up for Next Aviation
Despite poor market conditions in home country, company is expanding operation with new sites and additional aircraft
of a wave of new fractional busi-
ness aviation start-ups since- Although well-established
in North America and Europe,
the fractional ownership model is
only now gaining momentum in
Brazil, as the country’s economic
struggles have made full owner-
ship more expensive than ever.
Next Aviation’s growth could
accelerate in the next few months.
In addition to making its fleet
available for fractional ownership,
it is close to signing management
deals to bring privately owned air-
craft into that system. “This is
going to happen a lot in the next
few months,” Bizzotto says. ■
A
s Embraer prepared to ob-
serve the 48th anniversary of
its founding on 19 August, the
company unveiled at LABACE a
special paint scheme for its latest
executive jet – the Legacy 650E.
The 14-passenger aircraft is
decorated in a livery that transi-
tions from deep blue at the tail to
metallic silver at the nose, with
the subtle gradient applied with a
newly-acquired robotic paint
sprayer at the company’s factory
in São José dos Campos.
Inlaid in the deep blue field is
a map of the world, a nod to theaccess provided by the aircraft’s
3,900nm (7,220km) range.
The airframer launched the
Legacy 650E in October 2016, up-
grading the modified ERJ-145’s
flightdeck with a synthetic vision
system and new weather and traf-
fic collision avoidance features.
Embraer delivered two Legacy
650s in the first half of 2017, ac-
cording to General Aviation Man-
ufacturers Association statistics;
the initial 650E has now been
handed over to launch operator
Air Hamburg. ■
See Business Aviation PPROMOTION
Everything starts with an E on Embraer anniversary
Special livery was applied to latest iteration of flagship Legacy 650
Embraer“We started our
company at the worst
possible moment”
Pedro Bizzotto
Director of operations, Next Aviation