Pantanal Linhas Aéreas

The origins of Pantanal Linhas Aéreas are in Pantanal Taxi Aéreo, an air taxi company created in 1989 in Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul. This company, operating regular charter flights, provided convenient connections of cities in the Central-West Region of Brazil with flights of TAM Linhas Aéreas, which also provided two of the three Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirante of the fleet. In fact, as TAM Linhas Aéreas grew and dropped services to smaller cities, Pantanal became a viable solution for connectivity.

In 1990, the Brazilian Government partially deregulated the market and changed its airline concession policies, allowing the creation of new airlines. At this point, Marcos Sampaio Ferreira decided to transform his air taxi company into a regular airline with operations independent from those of TAM Linhas Aéreas. The leased Bandeirantes were returned to TAM, and in 1992, the first Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia was received. With new aircraft and a new logo identity, depicting a Jabiru locally known as tuiuiú, regular flights started on April 12, 1993.

It became the first Brazilian airline to introduce the ATR 42 aircraft in December 1993. In 1995 it won a government concession for transportation of Petrobras employees and cargo through the Amazon region.

With growing services, in 1996 Pantanal transferred its maintenance base from Campo Grande to Curitiba-Bacacheri, which at the time became its hub. The same year, in partnership with Total and Interbrasil STAR, Pantanal created the shuttle service between Rio de Janeiro-Santos Dumont and Belo Horizonte-Pampulha. The year ended with 18 destinations being served.

One of the consequences of the fast growth of Pantanal was the change of its logo, which, starting in 1997, depicted two arrows and no longer a Jabiru. The intention was to leave behind the idea of a purely regional carrier. The same year also brought a big blow to the operations of Pantanal: the National Civil Aviation Agency of Brazil closed Curitiba-Bacacheri Airport for regular flights. Pantanal had developed a hub and established its maintenance base at this facility. Having no other choice, Pantanal transferred its base to São Paulo-Congonhas Airport and changed its market focus to the Southeast and South regions of Brazil, eliminating destinations and increasing frequencies among the remaining.

Since TAM Linhas Aéreas ceased to operate purely regional flights in December 1998, Pantanal and TAM established feeding and code-share agreements for the second time. Services were concentrated at São Paulo-Congonhas Airport using the airline's precious slots at this airport. Those agreements were suspended in 2001 due to the death of Rolim Amaro, president of TAM and a friend of the president of Pantanal, and to the economic crisis that followed thereafter.

Pantanal never regained economic stability and the crisis reached the limit in the beginning of 2009 when Pantanal applied for judicial reorganization to the Commercial Bankruptcy and Reorganization Court in São Paulo. Pantanal continued to provide services despite its financial troubles.

Redemption came once again via TAM Linhas Aéreas: taking into account their long-lasting partnership and particularly the slots of Pantanal at São Paulo-Congonhas airport, on December 21, 2009, TAM Linhas Aéreas purchased Pantanal Linhas Aéreas. At that time, TAM decided to maintain Pantanal as a separate airline within the TAM Group, integrated into its network. The base of the ATR 42 aircraft was changed to São Paulo-Guarulhos Airport, and Pantanal slots at Congonhas were used by "TAM flights operated by Pantanal." In 2010, IATA changed the designator of Pantanal Linhas Aéreas from P8 to GP.

Pantanal Linhas Aéreas operated scheduled services to the following destinations:

Araçatuba – Dario Guarita Airport

Araraquara – Bartolomeu de Gusmão Airport

Assis – Marcelo Pires Halzhausen Airport

Accidents and incidents

On July 16, 2007, Pantanal Linhas Aereas Flight 4763, an ATR 42-300, registration PT-MFK, skidded off runway 17R while landing at Sao Paulo-Congonhas Airport, veering to the left onto the grass beside it, destroying a concrete box and a light pole. The cause was determined to be poor weather (rainy conditions on approach) and a lack of grooves imprinted into the runways, resulting in the plane hydroplaning and unable to slow down. Just one day later, TAM Airlines Flight 3054 would crash on the same runway, killing 199 people, in what would be Brazil's worst aviation disaster.