TRANSPORT-BRAZIL: Helicopters, Motorcycles as Alternative Taxis

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan 14 2000 (IPS) - Helicopters are in increasing demand as taxis for the well-heeled in Brazil, especially in mega- cities like Sao Paulo and Río de Janeiro, where traffic jams and demand for alternative means of transport have opened up new spaces in the market for entrepreneurs.

At the other end of the social spectrum, poor residents of “favelas” (shantytowns) are increasingly using “motorcycle- taxis”, while vans operating illegally are providing an alternative to poor quality or practically non-existent mass transit systems in large or medium-sized cities.

The number of helicopters used as “air taxis” has doubled over the past six years in Brazil, from 413 registered by the Department of Civil Aviation, dependent on the Ministry of Aeronautics, in 1993, to 780 in late 1999.

That increase of more than 10 percent a year contrasts with the average worldwide rise of three precent.

Sao Paulo, one of the top three cities in the world with the largest helicopter fleets, accounts for 42 percent of the national total, with 330 helicopters in 1999.

In cities where the streets are increasingly congested, the helicopter has become an indispensable means of transport for business executives, high-level officials and professionals with little time to spare and no problem with the high cost.

The population of Sao Paulo, which multiplied 41.7 times in the 20th century, has virtually ceased growing since 1980, when it hit the 10 million mark. But the number of vehicles circulating has continued to mushroom, to the current total of around five million, turning the city into one enormous traffic jam.

The subway, envisioned as a solution for the city’s urban transport problems 30 years ago, stopped growing when it reached an extension of 49 kilometres – just one-fifth of the extension originally planned for the start of the new century.

Helicopters have thus emerged as the alternative of choice for those who can afford to pay 10 times the cost of a normal taxi, are not afraid of heights and need to get somewhere fast.

Safety is another advantage provided by helicopters, say the well-to-do, the main targets of muggings and kidnappings which have become more and more frequent in Sao Paulo.

But the Association of Helicopter Pilots of Sao Paulo has already raised concerns about the disorderly air traffic over the city, and is demanding that routes be organised in order to prevent accidents.

The massive exodus of city residents to nearby beaches on long weekends is another factor in the increased demand for helicopter- taxis.

The endless lines of traffic in which thousands of Sao Paulo residents spent New Year’s eve in 1998 trapped in their cars inching along from Sao Paulo to the region of Santos, 70 kms away on the Atlantic coast, drove up demand this holiday season for flights to the exclusive Guarujá beach, despite the stiff price tag of 550 dollars.

In Río de Janeiro, the concentration of entrepreneurs and “nouveau riche” in Barra de Tijuca, a new neighbourhood that has cropped up on the westside of the city, gave the helicopter taxi business a boost, thanks to the demand for quick easy transport to the city’s commercial and administrative centre, 30 kms away.

A trip that can take two hours by car is cut to 10 minutes, and can cost as little as 30 dollars a head if people “car-pool” or make the helicopter trip in groups of four or five, says the president of Líder, one of Brazil’s largest air taxi companies.

Fear of kidnappings has also encouraged the use of helicopters in Río de Janeiro. Vera Loyola, for example, a prominent figure in Barra de Tijuca, has been a steady client of air taxi services since her father and son were kidnapped.

But it is the motorcycle-taxi that reigns, closer to downtown Río de Janeiro, in Rocinha, considered Latin America’s largest shantytown, home to around 150,000 people.

Over 200 motorcycle-taxis zip through the narrow alleyways of the favela. The price – one real (55 cents of a dollar) per trip within the neighbourhood – is competitive, especially since there are no buses. A trip to more distant parts of the city can cost up to 10 reals (5.50 dollars).

The attractive profits to be made have given rise to companies like Moto Express, which operates out of an office equipped with a telephone and has 30 motorcycle-taxis transporting passengers, merchandise and documents.

But the vehicles that have had the greatest impact on mass transit in Brazil’s large cities are vans seating six to 10 people. Still operating illegally for the most part, vans have drawn millions of passengers away from the buses by offering faster, more comfortable travel.

The National Association of Urban Transport Companies, which represents bus companies, estimates the number of vans operating in the country at around 38,000, with 17,000 in the metropolitan region of Sao Paulo alone.

The Association says that since they operate illegally and do not pay taxes, the vans undercut buses with their artificially low prices. It also argues that they further congest the streets and put their passengers at greater risk, while the drivers, who work in the informal market without labour benefits, lack adequate training.

Passengers, however, prefer the vans over buses. Given that demand, municipal authorities are attempting to regulate the new means of mass transit, and to somehow limit the mushrooming number of vans.