Air tickets for R$200 can be sold from August onwards.| Photo: Albari Rosa/Archive/Gazeta do Povo

The proposal by the Minister of Ports and Airports, Márcio França, to offer cheaper airline tickets should be implemented in August. The announcement made by the minister last month did not please President Lula very much, but the situation changed after the PT member became aware of the proposal.

The minister’s idea is not to take money from public coffers to subsidize tickets, but to develop an incentive program to be run by the airlines themselves. With the provisional name of Voa Brasil, the program intends to occupy the vacant seats of the flights, offering cheaper tickets.

According to the Ministry of Airports, for most of the year, there is an idleness of 21% on flights offered by airlines. Therefore, the vacancies could be sold cheaper, with the price around R$200. Initially, the cheapest tickets should be sold to civil servants, INSS retirees and pensioners, and students benefiting from Fies.

A working group with the participation of airlines and industry entities will be created to define future rules. The National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC) will coordinate the work. The expectation is that a pilot project will start to be valid from August, in the second half of the year.