By Gabriel Araujo
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Portuguese helicopter services provider OHI launched a new business in Brazil on Thursday to shuttle the country’s super rich between Sao Paulo’s wealthiest neighborhoods, a market it sees reaching 90,000 passengers per year by 2028.
Named Revo, the new company will offer helicopter flights through a digital platform to high-income clients in Latin America’s largest city so they can escape the metropolis’ chaotic road traffic.
Revo will initially offer flights connecting Faria Lima Avenue, Sao Paulo’s equivalent of Wall Street, to the local Guarulhos international airport and Fazenda Boa Vista, a countryside resort where many wealthy people live or spend their free time.
The firm at first will operate two Airbus helicopters from the fleet of OHI’s local subsidiary Omni Taxi Aereo, widely known for providing offshore air transportation in South America, but eyes reaching 12 choppers in the next five years.
“So far feedback has been very positive, as well as reactions to our prices,” Revo Chief Executive Joao Welsh said in an interview, adding he expects the firm’s revenue to hit $80 million within five years.
Revo’s goal, he said, is to one day use “flying cars,” or electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL), and it has already reached a deal with Embraer-owned Eve to buy 50 of its electric aircraft.
“Air transport revolutions always happen in the high-income segment,” Welsh noted.
“The eVTOL will never do everything a helicopter does in terms of load and flight range, but I think we’ll have a hybrid phase,” the executive said. “It is perfect for short flights such as the one between Guarulhos and Faria Lima.”
(Reporting by Gabriel Araujo. Editing by Gerry Doyle)
