TransBrasil was a Brazilian airline which ceased operations on 3 December 2001. During most of its history, Transbrasil was owned by local entrepreneur Omar Fontana. Its aircraft usually featured a colorful livery, remarkably with a rainbow on the tail fin. Transbrasil base was Brasilia International Airport in Brasilia. From the 1970s and until its demise in 2002, Transbrasil was usually the third largest Brazilian airline after Varig and VASP, serving both domestic and international routes.
History
First years as Sadia (1955–1972)
Transbrasil was born in the State of Santa Catarina as a sister company of S/A Indústria e Comércio Concórdia, better known by its acronym Sadia. In 1953 Omar Fontana, a pilot and one of the sons of the founder of Sadia Attilio Fontana, noticed that a Douglas DC-3 remained parked at Joaçaba Airport, near Concórdia, for the entire weekend. Omar Fontana came up with the idea of leasing the aircraft for transporting the products of Sadia to São Paulo. In 1954 Sadia acquired its own Douglas DC-3 and started daily flights to São Paulo–Congonhas Airport, having Omar as one of its crew members. However, since it was not an airline with a regular schedule, it could not receive subventions from the government. In order to avoid this restriction, on January 5, 1955 Omar Fontana founded Sadia S/A – Transportes Aéreos with 35 employees, 3 Douglas DC-3s and 2 Curtiss C-46s. The first regular flight was operated on March 16, 1956.
Sadia enlarged Concórdia Airport so that a Douglas DC-3 could operate with full load and created the first route linking Concórdia with Videira, Florianópolis, and São Paulo–Congonhas. A short time later, Sadia was also operating to Londrina, Bauru, Ribeirão Preto and Brasília.
In November 1957, Sadia established a partnership with Real Transportes Aéreos and became a feeder airline at Florianópolis. Whereas Real's Linneu Gomes got 50% of the shares of Sadia, Omar Fontana became part of the managing board of Real, where he gained airline experience. At this time Sadia moved its headquarters to São Paulo and expanded services to Rio de Janeiro–Santos Dumont and Porto Alegre. This partnership ended in 1961 with the demise of Real and Fontana bought back the shares he had earlier sold to Gomes.
In 1962 Sadia bought TASSA–Transportes Aéreos Salvador S/A and increased its presence in Bahia. Its fleet had now 15 Douglas DC-3s and 12 Curtiss C-46s serving 53 cities.
In 1967 most of Sadia network was eligible to receive subventions from the Federal government and aiming at those subventions Sadia bought five Handley Page Dart Heralds. In 1968 Sadia joined the shuttle service () between Rio de Janeiro-Santos Dumont and São Paulo-Congonhas airports, operated since 1959 by Varig, Cruzeiro do Sul and VASP. This service was abandoned only in 1999.
The first jet airliner type to be introduced into the fleet of Sadia, a stretched BAC One-Eleven Series 500, entered into service on September 17, 1970. In 1972 the name of the airline was changed to Transbrasil S/A Linhas Aéreas and its headquarters were moved to Brasília.
Consolidation as Transbrasil (1972–1983)
1973 - Transbrasil replaces its ageing Dart Heralds by new Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirante light transport turboprops. 1974 - Transbrasil starts to phase out its remainder Bandeirantes, Heralds and 1-11s, replacing them with Boeing 727-100. By 1979, its fleet consisted only of 727-100s. 1983 - Its first Boeing 767-200 is delivered, and Transbrasil starts its international operations, initially with charter flights - and from 1989, with regular service - to Miami, Orlando and Washington D.C.
Apogee and downturn (1983–2003)
In 1990 Transbrasil fleet consisted of three 767-200, three Boeing 707 for cargo and passenger service (operated by its affiliated company, Aerobrasil) and 15 leased Boeing 737-300 and -400. In addition to domestic flights to most of the larger Brazilian cities, Transbrasil offered regular and charter service to Miami, Orlando, New York, Washington, Buenos Aires, Vienna, Amsterdam, London and even Beijing. During some time, due to discounted ticket prices and an aggressive commercial strategy Transbrasil surpassed VASP as the second largest Brazilian airline.