The National Civil Aviation Agency of Brazil (ANAC) has suspended all Voepass Linhas Aéreas flight operations as a precautionary measure over safety concerns.
On March 11, 2025, ANAC announced that the Sao Paulo-based airline would be unable to fly until the carrier “proves its ability to guarantee the level of safety provided for in the current civil aviation regulations”.
“The decision, on a precautionary basis, was due to Voepass’ inability to solve irregularities identified in the inspections carried out by the Agency, as well as the non-compliance with established operating conditions,” said ANAC in a statement.
A spokesperson for Voepass confirmed to AeroTime that it had received notification about the suspension from ANAC and has begun “internal negotiations to demonstrate, as requested, its ability to guarantee the levels of safety required by the regulatory agency”.
In a statement the airline said: “The company reiterates that its fleet in operation is airworthy and able to carry out flights following the strict requirements of safety standards. This decision has an immeasurable impact on thousands of Brazilians who use regional aviation every day and rely on its service, so it will put all its efforts to resume the operation as soon as possible.”
ANAC highlighted problems with Voepass’ management systems and the carrier’s “inability to resolve irregularities identified during the supervision carried out by the agency”.
A Voepass ATR 72-500 turboprop crashed on August 9, 2024, killing 62 people while flying between Regional West Airport (CAC) in Cascavel and São Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport (GRU).
ANAC said that following the crash inspections were carried out at Voepass facilities to “verify the conditions necessary to guarantee an adequate level of operational safety”.
“In October 2024, Anac required measures such as reducing the network, increasing aircraft ground time for maintenance, changing administrators and implementing the action plan to correct irregularities,” the agency said in its statement.
Following further checks in February 2025, ANAC identified “systematic non-compliance with the requirements made by the Agency”.
“Furthermore, it was found that irregularities identified and considered to have been remedied by the Agency in previous surveillance and inspection actions had recurred, as well as the lack of effectiveness of the corrective action plan,” said ANAC.
The agency added: “There was thus a breach of trust in the company’s internal processes due to evidence that Voepass’ systems had lost the capacity to respond to the identification and correction of risks in air operations.”
Voepass currently operates a fleet of six aircraft across 15 destinations.
