Minister is criticized for live with Bolsonaro on Itapemirim and defends license given to company

The minister of infrastructure, Tarcísio de Freitas, defended this Monday (20) the license given to Itapemirim to enter the air sector.

Tarcísio and President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) have been criticized for a live broadcast in October of last year, in which they celebrated the company’s entry into the sector and its release for flights amidst a judicial reorganization process. The video returned to the networks over the weekend.

At the live, the president unwraps a miniature of the company’s bus and commemorates the announcement made by the minister of the road company’s entry into the air transport sector.

At an event held by the ministry this Monday morning, Tarcísio said that the company had complied with all the requirements for obtaining a license from ANAC (National Civil Aviation Agency). According to him, the certification process involved questioning the team responsible for judicial recovery and the State Public Ministry, which monitors the process.

The license was made possible by the separation of legal entities that would operate land and air transport. Both are part of the Itapemirim group, which has been facing a judicial recovery process since 2016.

“There was a difference in the CNPJ, that is, the road company is under judicial reorganization. And this CNPJ, which was born with the airline, had all the clearance certificates”, said the minister, referring to tax, labor and pension plans of the new company.

The minister also defended Anac’s role in regulating the company’s operations, which was faced with delays in salaries and employee benefits, suspension of workers’ health plans, debts with suppliers, non-compliance with schedules, flight cancellations, customer service criticized by customers and sending erroneous data on the number of passengers to ​Anac (National Civil Aviation Agency).

“At times, when they thought about selling more tickets, the agency intervened (sic) immediately. And, if there had been no such intervention, the problem could have been even more serious,” he said.

On social networks, however, users have criticized the company’s authorization to operate in the air transport sector. “Bolsonaro was Itapemirim’s poster boy, live. The reason why a company undergoing judicial reorganization obtains authorization from Anac to operate without the minimum required conditions is explained,” one of them wrote.

“Itapemirim is closed with Bolsonaro. And it doesn’t open,” joked another. “It’s been 24 hours since Itapemirim suspended its operations after six months of activities, it left thousands of users to their own devices and the minister @tarcisiogdf, who held a meeting with the company and took a thumbnail to the president, still didn’t say ANYTHING”, he demanded on Sunday (19) an anonymous page that has released videos related to the case.

Anac’s board of directors granted the concession for the company to fly in May of this year, in an extraordinary online meeting, held for the exclusive analysis of the case.

The decision authorized the company to explore the regular and non-regular public air service for national and international passengers, cargo and mail bags.

The company announced the suspension of flights on Friday (17), after six months of operation. The measure affected at least 40 thousand passengers, according to Procon-SP.

After the interruption of all company flights last week, Anac suspended the sale of airline tickets.

On Saturday (18), the company informed that it prioritizes the re-accommodation of passengers who need to return home on flights from other companies. “Other passengers with round-trip travel, who are in their city of residence, will receive priority assistance with full refund of amounts paid,” he said in a note.

The company advises passengers to contact the email [email protected] or directly with their travel agency.​