Brazil Asks Air Force to Aid Airlines

By PETER MUELLO

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called in the Brazilian air force Friday to help transport airline passengers on an emergency basis as long delays and overbooked planes snarled commercial flights over the busy holiday weekend.

Brazil halted ticket sales by the nation’s biggest airline, Tam Linhas Aereas SA, until the situation was brought under control, aviation officials said Friday.

The Air Force Command, whose flights began after the president’s announcement, said in a statement it was fulfilling a request by Silva to “relieve the difficulties currently faced by users of commercial civil aviation” across Latin America’s largest country.

The air force made eight jets – two Boeing 707s, two Boeing 737s and four Embraer EMB-145s – available for flights between Brasilia, the nation’s capital, and Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the country’s two largest cities.

The Air Force’s expenses will be paid for by the airlines, which have been dogged by mechanical problems, bad weather and a protest by air traffic controllers, resulting in traveling nightmares for passengers.

Bad weather and mechanical problems with six Tam airplanes caused delays of up to 12 hours at Brazilian airports Thursday.

The National Agency of Civil Aviation, or ANAC, said it halted Tam ticket sales Friday because “predicted improvements in the treatment of passengers did not occur, with the persistence of delays.”

“All airlines have delays, but Tam is the most affected,” said Nadia Tavares, a spokeswoman for Brazil’s airport authority, Infraero.

Calls to TAM officials went to a recorded message that told callers to try back later.

More than 1,000 stranded travelers were waiting for delayed flights Friday in Brasilia, including some 600 Tam passengers, Infraero said. Some 30 passengers invaded the tarmac, chanting “we want a plane,” but were peacefully removed by police.

Of the 40 flights scheduled to take off from Brasilia on Friday morning, 18 were delayed, ANAC said. At airports in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, numerous flights were delayed and long lines of passengers stretched across the lobby.

Silva called for the airlines and regulatory agencies to account for the delays.

Brazil’s airport woes began after a midair collision between a Gol airlines Boeing 737 and an Embraer Legacy 600 executive jet in late September. The Gol flight crashed in the Amazon jungle, killing 154 people in Brazil’s worst air disaster. Authorities are investigating whether controller error had a role in the collision.

Soon after, air traffic controllers began following regulations to the letter in a “work-to-rule” protest to demand better pay and working conditions.

The delays worsened on Dec. 5 when air control systems at Brasilia’s airport failed, and authorities suspended takeoffs from three major airports for hours, prompting an unprecedented wave of flight cancellations.