VASP

Viação Aérea São Paulo (VASP) is a Brazilian airline based in São Paulo.

Generated in São Paulo the company intented to connect Brazil’s large cities: Vasp (Viação Aérea São Paulo), founded on November 4, 1933. Vasp was the first to serve the interior of the state of São Paulo. At the start of the 1930s, it was the only carrier to operate with land planes. At the time this was a real exploit due to the lack of adequate non-coastal airports. Many landing strips were improvised in flat pastures. This insistence on using only land planes led to the building in 1936 of one of the country’s most important airports, Congonhas, located in the city of São Paulo, far from the coast.

VASP was privatized in 1990, and under the command of its new owner and president, Wagner Canhedo , quickly expanded operations in the country, and created international routes, being the second Brazilian company to do so after 1965. It was the second major Brazilian airline before 9/11, in 2002, decided to interrupt entirely all international operations to concentrate in the domestic market. Now, VASP is 4th in Brazil (before VARIG, TAM and Gol, using an old fleet of Boeing 737s and Airbus A300.

The company has been facing its worst crisis since 2004, which led to the suspension of service to some Brazilian cities and the cancellation of flights. As a result, VASP - once a proud, competitive airline - had its market share reduced to only 10% of the Brazilian domestic market.

VASP had controlling interests in Bolivia's Lloyd Aereo Boliviano and Ecuador's Ecuatoriana, but in 2003, due to its financial crisis, Vasp decided to sell its shares in these companies.

See also

• List of airlines

External link

• VASP website