A MAJOR AIR SHOW in Sao Paulo this week turned the spotlight on the robust health of Brazil’s general aviation market, which is thriving despite the global economic slowdown.
General aviation, which makes up the majority of the world’s air traffic, refers to all flights other than military and scheduled airline passenger and cargo flights.
The category, made up mostly of small planes, covers corporate travel, private flying, flight training, air ambulance, police aviation, aerial firefighting, air charter, and bush flying.
At Sao Paulo’s Congonhas airport, 70 planes were on display as part of the ninth edition of the Latin American Business Aviation Conference & Exhibition (LABACE), which organizers say is the second largest general aviation show in the world after the Oshkosh air show in the US state of Wisconsin.
“The general aviation market has expanded considerably in Brazil unlike in other countries,” said Eduardo Marson, president of the Brazilian Civil Aviation Association (ABAG).
The sector soared 6.4 percent from 2010 to 2011 and should grow 4.5 to 5 percent from 2011 to 2012, he added. “But we are not immune from the world (economic) crisis,” he said.
The three-day air show, which closed Friday, drew around 100 manufacturers including Canada’s Bombardier, Gulfstream and Hawker Beechcraft from the United States, Europe’s Airbus, and Brazil’s Embraer, as well as airplane service, insurance and maintenance providers.
Last year, the show featured 60 aircraft, drew 15,000 visitors over three days, and closed with contracts worth a total of $400 million.
There is growth in all general aviation categories in Brazil, “but especially business aviation,” said Dorieldo Luis dos Prazeres, an air control expert at the Brazilian Civil Aviation Agency.
“The economy is booming, the companies, the number of rich people and this means higher sales of aircraft,” dos Prazeres said.
Brazil, the world’s sixth largest economy and home to 191 million people, is a promising market for airplane manufacturers even though the government has revised downward its GDP forecast for this year to under three percent.
Commercial aviation regularly serves 130 destinations across this country that is larger than the continental United States, while general aviation serves 3,500, or 75 percent of the national territory, according to ABAG.
“For our business aircraft division, Brazil is a very promising market where our client base is growing,” said Annie Cossette, a spokeswoman for Bombardier.
Leading domestic plane maker Embraer had several models on display at the show, including the $4 million Phenom 100, which sits six to 8 passengers, and the $53 million, 19-seat Lineage 1000, which looks like a small jet airliner.
Embraer, the world’s third largest commercial plane manufacturer, delivered its first business plane in 2002 and has sold 540 to date, including 112 in Brazil. More than half of the company’s sales have taken place over the past two years.
Embraer is also seeking to increase its general aviation sales in the United States, Europe and China.
“We are newcomers in this sector but business is good,” said Embraer spokesman Marco Tulio Pellegrini. “These aircraft are no longer viewed as luxury in Brazil but as a tool which makes it possible to generate more business in less time.”
The growth of business aviation is closely linked to Brazil’s economic activity, he said, noting that the country will host the 2014 soccer World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Brazil boasts the world’s second largest general aviation fleet behind the United States: as of 2011 it had 13,094 planes, according to ABAG figures. Of those, 25 percent are based in the economic powerhouse state of Sao Paulo.
The country has 1,650 corporate jets, used by those who can afford to escape the urban traffic chaos.
Air show spotlights Brazil’s booming general aviation sector
Air show spotlights Brazil’s booming general aviation sector
In southeast Pakistan, Ramadan brings Hindus and Muslims closer
MITHI: Partab Shivani, a Hindu in Muslim-majority Pakistan, has fasted on and off during Ramadan for years, but this time is different as he practices abstinence for the entire holy month.
Every year, he and his friends in the southeastern city of Mithi arrange iftar, when Muslims break their daily fast, to foster peace and solidarity between the two religions.
“I believe we need to promote interfaith harmony. First, we are humans — religions came later,” Shivani, a 48-year-old social activist, told AFP, adding that he also reads the teachings of the Buddha.
“His message is about peace and ending war. Peace can spread through solidarity and by standing with one another. Distance only widens the gap between people,” he added.
Ninety-six percent of Pakistan’s 240 million people are Muslim. Just two percent are Hindu, most of them living in rural areas of Sindh province where Mithi is located.
In Mithi itself, most of the 60,000 inhabitants are Hindu.
Many of the city’s Hindus also observe Ramadan and iftar has become a social gathering where people from both faiths happily participate.
“This has been a wonderful tradition of ours for a very long time,” said Mir Muhammad Buledi, a 51-year-old Muslim friend who attended Shivani’s iftar gathering.
“It is a beautiful example of harmony between the two communities.”
Like brothers
Discrimination against minorities runs deep in Pakistan.
Following the end of British rule in South Asia in 1947, the subcontinent was partitioned into mainly Hindu India and Muslim-majority Pakistan.
That triggered widespread religious bloodshed in which hundreds of thousands were killed and millions displaced.
According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, freedom of religion or belief is under constant threat, with religiously motivated violence and discrimination increasing yearly.
State authorities, often using religious unrest for political gain, have failed to address the crisis, the independent non-profit says.
But such tensions are absent in Mithi.
“I am a Hindu but I keep all the fasts during this month,” said Sushil Malani, a local politician. “I feel happy standing with my Muslim brothers.
“We celebrate Eid together as well. This tradition in the region is very old.”
Restaurants and tea stalls are closed across Pakistan during Ramadan.
Ramesh Kumar, a 52-year-old Hindu man who sells sweets and savoury items outside a Muslim shrine, keeps his push cart covered and closed until iftar.
“There is no discrimination among us if someone is Muslim or Hindu. I have been seeing this since my childhood that we all live together like brothers,” he said.
Muslim shrine, Hindu caretaker
Locals say Mithi’s peaceful religious coexistence can be traced to its remote location, emerging from the sand dunes of the Tharparkar desert, which borders the modern Indian state of Rajasthan.
Cows — considered sacred in Hinduism — roam freely in Mithi city, as they do in neighboring India.
At two Sufi Muslim shrines in the middle of the city, Hindu families arrange meals, bringing fruit, meals and juices for their Muslim neighbors to break their fasts.
“We respect Muslims,” said Mohan Lal Malhi, a Hindu caretaker of one of the shrines.
Mohan said his parents and elders taught him to respect people regardless of religion or color, and the traditions pass from one generation to the next.
Local residents said both communities consider their social relationships more important than their religious identity.
“You will see a (Sikh) gurdwara, a mosque, and a shrine standing side by side here,” Mohan said. “The atmosphere of this area teaches humanity.”
