Aircraft
Making the Amazon Safe with Caravans
Brazil airlines bank on utility turboprop
TAM Aviação Executivo at LABACE 2023
TAM Aviação Executivo brought nine Textron Aviation aircraft to LABACE 2023. (Photo: Antonio Carlos Carreiro/AIN)

The Cessna Caravan market is growing in Brazil, Bob Gibbs, Textron Aviation's v-p of special mission sales, said this week at LABACE 2023. “There’s been a big uptick in [aeromedical] purchases, with Caravans bought by the fire department but used by the Ministry of Health,” he said. “All public safety purchases are long-cycle, but they all have to add aircraft eventually.”

The Brazilian market includes federal agencies, which need modern aircraft for surveillance. However, public safety purchases are done by state rather than local governments. “Some big cities could afford to have their own [aircraft], Gibbs said, “but depend on the state.”