Lider, Brazil’s oldest business aviation firm, with a national chain of FBOs and VIP facilities, is in some ways the industry's most modern service provider. And while it reacts and adapts to changes in market demand, it is also ahead of some trends.

The company is the exclusive sales and support provider in Brazil for the HondaJet, which aircraft sales director Philipe Figueiredo described as having “great receptivity in the market.” Lider has also unveiled its new mobile app—expected to be fully functional in September—as “a path from the market to Lider,” permitting charter and empty-legs booking at a discount. The app can also facilitate the purchase and sale of aircraft. Figueiredo admits the app won’t replace salesmen as the “relationship is very important in aircraft sales,” and for charters “the telephone will keep working.”

Lider follows the market much as everyone else, and with the current economic situation and reduced budgets in Brazil, the company has innovated by offering one-stop-shop capability for maintenance and retrofits during a single visit. “Our business is tied to the economy,” Figueiredo said, but that commonplace observation prefaces a more widespread view of the market. “As agribusiness has grown, opening new frontiers, we’ve followed.” The frontiers he cites are geographic and exotic, such as the Upper Xingu region.

Cynthia Oliveira, Lider’s operations director, is responsible for the company's FBOs. The flagship at Galeão International Airport in Rio was opened for the Olympics in 2016, and FBOs and VIP rooms around the country are being progressively renovated to the Signature standard, with the Congonhas VIP room next on the list. Renovated facilities will have doubled passenger and crew areas.

One difficulty that FBOs face is that Brazilian law doesn’t provide for fee-based differential treatment for private aircraft passengers. The Rio FBO was constructed with customs and immigration facilities that so far have not been used, although Lider “hopes to be the pioneer." The company has gained permission for domestic passengers to depart directly from the FBO, which was not previously allowed. At Guarulhos Airport, Lider provides special treatment for its passengers with a VIP room inside the terminal.

The recession is not the only challenge business aviation has faced recently in Brazil. The privatization of airports has led to concessionaires seeking increased fees from business aviation users that have long enjoyed access to airport facilities. Some business aviation operators have departed, notably in Brasilia. Oliveira is unconcerned, however, and said, “We’ve managed to negotiate” with some concessionaires. Regarding the concern that airlines might force out business aviation at Congonhas, she said, “Our area in Congonhas isn’t suited for commercial aviation.” There are more opportunities away from the São Paulo-Rio-Brasilia triangle, she added. “I see more need in other areas, like [northeastern city] João Pessoa” for business aviation access to airports.

The “car wash” scandal that broadly attacked corruption specifically focused on Petrobras, which also was battered by lower oil prices. Lider has long been a large supplier of offshore helicopter services to Petrobras, and several recent contracts have gone to other vendors. Figueiredo downplayed this change, noting, “Contracts are periodically rebid, and not all at once. We have contracts in place that we are performing, we’ve won some recently, and will win others in the future. It’s normal that some other bidders win contracts. Competition is healthy.”

While aviation in Brazil is heavily concentrated in São Paulo and Rio and heavily masculine and white, Belo Horizonte-based Lider presents a profile unusual for Brazil and aviation. The directors of maintenance, operations, IT, legal affairs, communications, and several other departments are women, as is the general director (though she arrived at the post in a more traditional manner, as granddaughter of the owner, legendary “Captain Afonso”—José Afonso Assumpção). Philipe Figueiredo, while male, is black. Nor is this modern political correctness: both Figueredo and Oliveira started at Lider as trainees, 25 and 20 years ago, respectively, and rose through the ranks. “Captain Afonso always liked working with women,” Oliveira said, “and Lider has always valued ability.”