TAM Aviação Executivo recently received approval from Brazil’s Ceará state government to operate at Aracatí Airport, where it aims to open by year-end a 150,000-sq-ft business aviation maintenance facility that can simultaneously service up to 30 aircraft. Once Brazil’s civil aviation agency, ANAC, approves the new facility in the country’s northeast region, TAM AE plans to start servicing the Cessna Citation and Caravan and then quickly expand to the whole Textron Aviation portfolio.

Along with existing locations in Jundiaí, Belo Horizonte and Brasilia, Aracatí will bring TAM’s business aviation maintenance footprint to 540,000 sq ft, the largest in Latin America.

TAM AE president Fernando Pinho said that about half of the company’s business comes from aircraft maintenance. “The north and northeast of Brazil are home to 20 percent of the fleet served by TAM AE. Our expectation is to quickly increase these numbers, since our services will now be in easier reach of our clients from the north and northeast, and from Central America.”