After meeting, Silvio Costa Filho states that aviation companies will send a plan to make tickets cheaper in 10 days
The Minister of Ports and Airports, Silvio Costa Filho, said this Tuesday (14.Nov.2023) that the Voa Brasil program will be launched “in early 2024”. The main objective of the initiative is to reduce the price of plane tickets.
“We are talking to the government in the next few days so that we can possibly present this program, which should possibly be at the beginning of 2024”he told journalists in Brasília.
On October 31st, Costa Filho he said that the program would come out in 2023. initial announcement was made by his predecessor in office, Márcio França, in March.
Before the speech, Costa Filho met with the Minister of the Civil House, Rui Costa, to discuss the plans for Voa Brasil.
Afterwards, he participated in a meeting with airline CEOs, the Anac (National Civil Aviation Agency) and Abear (Brazilian Association of Airlines) to discuss cheaper tickets. Businesspeople from Azul, Latam, Gol and Voepass were present.
Upon leaving the meeting, the head of Ports and Airports stated that the companies had committed to presenting a plan to reduce the cost of tickets in 10 days. The deadline ends on November 24th.
When asked what level of reduction the government expects, he replied that “still working” and depends on airline suggestions.
“What we cannot accept and admit are abusive increases that have harmed Brazilian operations”, he said. Costa Filho stated that the increase in price is mainly due to the price of aviation fuel and the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The minister declared that BNDES (National Bank for Economic and Social Development) will be responsible for financing airlines with the aim of improving the quality of flights.
The minister had already announced his intention to meet with businesspeople on Saturday (Nov 11) and his profile on X (formerly Twitter). “We have to look for alternatives and ways to reduce these high prices that have been harming all Brazilians”he wrote at the time.
The cheaper price of airline tickets is one of the points defended by the entrepreneurs behind large companies. In an interview with the newspaper The globe This Tuesday, Azul’s CEO, John Rodgerson, said that high values impede the sector’s growth.
“A country that extracts oil from the ground, that has this as an asset, having the most expensive fuel in the world makes no sense to anyone”he said Rodgerson.
According to the tariff panel from Anac, the average price of a plane ticket in Brazil was R$649.17 in August 2023 (most recent data). In comparison with the same month of the previous year, there was a drop of 9.7%. However, compared to the same period in 2019, before the pandemic, the increase was 21.5%. The data is adjusted for inflation.
