Brazil’s ANAC Suspends Total Linhas Aéreas Operations

Brazil’s National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC) has suspended the air operator certificate of Total Linhas Aéreas, grounding the cargo carrier until it resolves a series of safety and regulatory deficiencies identified by the agency.

The suspension took effect on September 1 and will remain in place for an indefinite period. Total, which operates cargo and postal services including flights for Brazil’s Correios postal service, cannot conduct commercial air operations while the measure remains in force.

ANAC cited outstanding critical and high-level non-conformities involving continuing airworthiness, operational safety systems and aviation security. The regulator concluded that corrective measures recently proposed by Total had not demonstrated that the underlying risks had been adequately addressed.

Regulators also identified weaknesses in the airline’s Safety Management System and Continuous Analysis and Surveillance System. ANAC said successive management changes had contributed to a loss of accumulated technical and managerial knowledge, reducing the carrier’s ability to identify, control and correct operational risks internally.

Before operations can resume, Total must address its outstanding safety findings, restore required management positions with personnel accepted by ANAC, strengthen its safety oversight systems, regularize continuing-airworthiness controls and improve procedures for identifying and reporting operational events and risks.

The carrier will also be subject to additional audits and regulatory inspections. ANAC said operations can resume only after those reviews produce satisfactory results demonstrating an acceptable level of safety.