Discover the brief (and short) trajectory of Itapemirim Transportes Aéreos

Born in times of a pandemic, ITA or Itapemirim Transportes Aéreos suspended all its flight operations last Friday (17/12) in order to carry out operational adjustments and an internal restructuring.

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With that, there is no prediction of when the airline will resume its operations, mainly due to the fact that the National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC) has suspended its Air Operator Certificate (COA), meaning that the company will not be able to carry out and commercialize new commercial flights.

It is noteworthy that the company did not even complete 6 months of operations, before running out of cash and having to paralyze its flights. The aviation arm of the Itapemirim Group was born in Judicial Recovery, and the entire group is still in RJ in the Brazilian courts.

A new company was born in times of crisis

With its first enger flight on the morning of June 29, 2021, the historic flight IPM-001 took off from Guarulhos International Airport (GRU) to Brasília.

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In this ocasion, the inaugural flight had executives from the Itapemirim Group and journalists.

Check out the video of the special moment below:

Soon, another Brazilian airline was born, going against any pessimistic surprise that Brazil had another player in aviation even in the face of the crisis that the airline industry was facing due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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Itapemirim Transportes Aéreos had plans to unite its air and road modal, something unprecedented that should start in the first half of 2022. According to Sidnei Piva, the Itapemirim Group planned to serve around 1700 cities with the new distribution between planes and buses.

In addition, ITA Transportes Aéreos expected to have up to 10 aircraft in operation in October this year, expanding to around 50 aircraft and 35 commercial routes by June 2022.

Check out the company's plan:

São Paulo-Guarulhos: June 29, 2021
Brasilia-Guarulhos: June 29, 2021
Belo Horizonte-Confins: July 1, 2021
Rio de Janeiro-Galeão: July 1, 2021
El Salvador: July 1, 2021
Porto Alegre: July 1, 2021
Porto Seguro: July 1, 2021
Curitiba: July 3, 2021
Recife: August 1, 2021
Maceio: August 1, 2021
Fortaleza: August 1, 2021
Florianópolis: August 1, 2021
Christmas: August 1, 2021
Victory: September 1, 2021
São Luís: September 1, 2021
Aracaju: September 1, 2021
Goiânia: September 1, 2021
Ribeirão Preto: September 1, 2021
Bethlehem: October 1, 2021
Manaus: November 1, 2021
Santarém: November 1, 2021
Foz do Iguaçu: December 1, 2021
Macapá: February 1, 2022
Empress: April 1, 2022
Navegantes: April 1, 2022
Presidente Prudente: April 1, 2022
Uberlândia: April 1, 2022
João Pessoa: April 2, 2022
Campo Grande: May 1, 2022
Palms: May 1, 2022
Cuiabá: May 1, 2022
Porto Velho: May 1, 2022
São José do Rio Preto: May 1, 2022
Teresina: June 1, 2022
Maringá: June 1, 2022

Not everything went as planned at Itapemirim

With the ambitious mission of expanding its destinations in a short time, ITA Transportes Aéreos saw its planning fall apart due to its limited fleet, not to mention the mechanical and ground operations problems, forming a cascade effect throughout the operational network. and consequently, numerous delays in their planned flights.

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Even for those who were excited to see a company that gave up charging checked baggage and asg seats free of charge, as soon as it started operations, Sidnei Piva de Jesus even announced that the company would serve feijoada on board flights that had Rio de Janeiro as a destination, something unheard of until then.

For those who are used to flying direct with an airline, Itapemirim was hostage to its fleet, and any technical problem meant that the company was forced to fly with unplanned stops at other destinations, which ended up taking a lot of people from surprise, and of course, it started distrust on the part of engers about the future of the airline.

In an increasingly digital world, Itapemirim went against the grain with its web check-in services, limiting its services without the existence of an application that facilitated boarding, generating queues at its bases and, many times, boarding made it a chaotic task for someone who was about to travel.

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Another fact that infuriated a good part of the engers was the unpleasant experience of the company rescheduling or canceling flights with short notice without any prior communication, generating revolt and distrust of investors against the airline.

Without enough aircraft to handle the destinations and operating at the limit, Itapemirim was left to postpone its planning to open new fleets, and the receipt of new aircraft also did not leave the paper.

With only six aircraft, the company was making regular flights to São Paulo-Guarulhos and Congonhas (SP), Brasília (DF), Belo Horizonte-Confins (MG), Fortaleza (CE), Florianópolis (SC), Maceió (AL), Natal (RN), Rio de Janeiro-Galeão (RJ), Porto Alegre (RS), Porto Seguro (BA), Recife (PE) and Salvador (BA).

Flight cancellations a few days before the start of operations at Itapemirim

Itapemirim was involved in a controversy with customers before starting to fly, by canceling flights almost a month after the start of their sale, which was on May 21st.

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At the time, the company explained to customers that it needed to reorganize the flight network. Indeed, ITA moved from a hub-to-hub model to a triangular one, as applied by other national airlines on some routes. In addition, the smaller number of planes at the debut may also have affected the company's schedule.

In the first cancellations, Itapemirim gave a courtesy ticket to the affected engers, in addition to, logically, complying with the duty to refund or reschedule the canceled flights for any date. In the 2nd wave of cancellations, the company only offered the traditional refund or rescheduling.

And at the time, the company was already planning to integrate road and air transport, an idea that emerged right at the beginning of the pandemic. You can see a chapter of this story, which happened in Minas Gerais but never got off the ground, Clicking here.

The drop of water in the overflowing cup

With late payments and benefits interrupted before 6 months of regular operations, Itapemirim saw a decrease in its staff, especially the company's crew and flight attendants.

Complaints also came from the mechanics, who claimed the lack of uniforms and adequate working conditions, leaving the SNA to charge and question the company for better working conditions.

At the end of November, Itapemirim finally started its international operations with non-scheduled flights, connecting Brazil to Uruguay to take fans to watch the Brazilian final of the Libertadores Cup.

However, nobody counted that the company would stop fulfilling its domestic flights to focus exclusively on chartered flights, a decision considered unusual and never seen before.

Interestingly, according to the calculation of the collaborators of the Aeroflap Portal, only one aircraft made domestic flights for the company between the 24th and 25th of November, little did Itapemirim know that there were just over 4 weeks left for its last flight.

At the same time, creditors also requested an investigation of the Judicial Recovery, for allegedly Itapemirim use creditors' payment money to found the new airline, without court authorization.

the beginning of the end

Itapemirim entered in December with many problems to solve and still with a messy mesh. Many engers faced problems with canceled flights, and the company continued the constant changes in its regular flight network.

The last days before the suspension of flights were also marked by a wide change of executives in the company, changing a good part of its istrative staff. Itapemirim was also facing problems with the SNA, due to delays in the payment of Food Vouchers, crew allowances, Health Plan and FGTS for months.

The company was also operating with cash payments, due to the mistrust of some suppliers with forward payments by the company. On the other hand, the company received two ANAC fines in a row, for not delivering air traffic data for September and October.

Despite the complicated situation, and several delayed flights, the crew still worked with excellence to deliver the safest flight possible, even with older aircraft. Few in-flight operational problems occurred during the Itapemirim operation.

On all the flights we participated in, the crew always earned above-average scores, compared to other companies. Promptness and good service in flight, despite the problems, were the crew's mottos, which clashed with the poor management of the company at its headquarters in São Paulo.

In any case, Itapemirim continued with its expansion plans, and in November it even received one more aircraft for its fleet, an Airbus A319 that is still at Galeão Airport, and has never operated flights for the company.

At other airports around the world, such as Indonesia, another A319 that would operate under registration PS-J, and another plane, an A320 that would operate under registration PS-CHM, but which was awaiting transfer in another country.

Despite the delayed flights and all the problems, few knew that operations would be suspended on December 17th, and we even received cases of engers who boarded early with Itapemirim, and now do not have their return tickets.

The planes of Itapemirim

The company said shortly before starting its flights that it expected to end 2021 with more than 20 planes in the fleet, and reach 50 planes flying by mid-2022.

As always, the plan turned out to be different from reality. Itapemirim ended August with five aircraft in its fleet, closing two months of flight operations. And after that, the fleet grew little, with the arrival of another A320 in October, which entered into operation the following month, and as we mentioned earlier, the arrival of another aircraft, the first A319 in November.

The Airbus A320 planes were equipped with 162 seats in Single Class, a very spacious configuration, but part of the comfort varied according to the aircraft, since the seats were from previous operators, and in the case of the PS-SPJ, there was no possibility of recline, very good on the PS-TCS, for example.

Below the seats, there are 4 USB fast charging ports for each row of three seats. It is a good amount, but for those who use a notebook it is possible to miss the 110V outlets.

Below we can see a comparison of the seats of the first two aircraft, the first with fabric upholstery and with seat reclining, and the second with leather and no possibility of reclining.

Inside, the aircraft really didn't look like they had been in use for 15 years. The seat covers are new, there are no scratches on the trim s, the bins are very new and without suitcase marks, the carpet on the floor is also without the appearance of use, like new from the factory.

Interestingly, the company promised good on-board service, something that no one has given due to Anvisa's blocking of meals on board planes. Due to the use of masks, airlines cannot offer the service on board their domestic flights.

But in the image below it is possible to check the “international flight pattern” presented to the press.