Campo de Marte hangar has ‘eviction order’ after two-decade dispute

The dispute has been dragging on in the 4th Federal Civil Court of São Paulo for 22 years: Tucson Aviação says it cannot be evicted because it provides a service that cannot be put out to tender by the government and because it would suffer irreparable losses. For more than two decades, it has occupied a 3,800 m² hangar at São Paulo’s Campo de Marte Airport, in the northern part of the city, without any contract.

It was there that on August 7th the Civil Police seized a plane that was part of a fleet used by drug traffickers from the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) to transport cocaine. Now, the Court has decided that the Tucson will have to leave there.

The site, previously managed by the Brazilian Airport Infrastructure Company (Infraero), was granted to PRS Aeroportos SA in March 2023, which obtained in August the decision to reinstate possession of the area, suspending an injunction in force since February 2003. The imbroglio of the hangar, one of the largest in Campo de Marte, also involves a well-known character in the business world: businessman Marco Antônio Audi, who was linked to the attempt to save Varig from bankruptcy in the early 2000s.

VARIGLOG AND LULA

Audi was one of the partners of Volo do Brasil, which had bought VarigLog, the arm that handled Varig’s cargo transportation. He would end up being removed from the company because the courts understood that he was covering up for the Chinese Lap Chan and the Matlin Patterson fund to circumvent the legislation that established that airlines with domestic routes had to be controlled by Brazilians.

Summoned to testify before the Senate, Audi revealed that he had paid lawyer Roberto Teixeira, a crony of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, US$5 million to “remove obstacles to the sale of VarigLog to Volo do Brasil” – VarigLog would enter into judicial recovery in 2009 and would go bankrupt in 2012. When contacted, Teixeira did not comment on Audi’s statements.

At that time, Audi was already facing a battle with Infraero for possession of the hangar at Campo de Marte. In 1999, his company, Tucson, had signed an agreement with the state-owned airport company to renew the concession for the area – since 1972 the businessman, who represented the Robinson helicopter manufacturer in Brazil, had been working at Campo de Marte.

The contract expired in 2002 and was not renewed by Infraero, which asked Tucson to vacate the hangar and granted a ten-day deadline.

The company went to court to prevent the eviction. It claimed to be responsible for 400 jobs and the maintenance of more than 300 helicopters of 25 different types in the country. It requested an extension of the contract to avoid irreparable risks and obtained the right to remain in place without a contract. It also claimed that the service provided by the company was not subject to bidding due to its advanced technical level. It even paid part of the outstanding debts owed to Infraero in order to convince the court.

On August 28, 2008, Judge Taís Borges Ferracini Gurgel ruled against Tucson. According to her, it was not the default, but the end of the contract that led to the reinstatement of possession of the hangar area in favor of Infraero. And, even if the state-owned company wanted to extend the contract, it would have to bid for the area again. In 2015, however, Judge Alda Bastos, of the Regional Federal Court of the 3rd Region (TRF-3), accepted an appeal by Audi, who claimed that his defense had been restricted, and annulled the judge’s previous ruling.

During these years, the company accumulated debts with the government for not paying rent for the land where the hangar was located and for not collecting taxes. The debts reached R$165 million. Only in 2023 did Infraero ask the 4th Federal Court to recognize that all evidence had already been produced in the case and to sentence it.

NEW CHAPTER

In the same year, Infraero granted Campo de Marte to PRS Aeroportos for 30 years. It was PRS that filed a new request for Tucson to vacate the hangar. It gave a ten-day deadline.

Audi appealed once again. It had been in default for two years, according to the lawsuit filed by PRS. Until Judge Raquel Fernandez Perrin granted the dealership’s request. “Due to the change in the legal and factual context, I understand that there is no legal basis for maintaining the injunction.”

Tucson’s defense filed an appeal against the new decision so that the TRF-3 could once again decide whether the company could remain in a public area granted without a contract and without paying anything. The most recent chapter in the dispute occurred on Friday, when Judge Marcelo Saraiva of the court denied the company’s appeals and confirmed the decision that requires Tucson to vacate the hangar.

“Therefore, it was clearly demonstrated that Tucson has been unduly occupying an area owned by the Union – and now granted to the applicant – for more than 20 (twenty) years, based on a precarious decision, whose legitimizing requirements, more than not being present, are being clearly not complied with”, concluded the judge.

PCC. It was in this same hangar that on August 7, agents from the 30th Police District (Tatuapé), under the command of delegate Marcos Galli Casseb, seized the Bandeirante Embraer EMB-110 aircraft, which belonged to a fleet purchased by drug traffickers linked to the PCC.

The aircraft, valued at R$5 million, which remains in the hangar, is registered in the name of pilot Pablito Baena Castilho and was operated by Bimava Táxi Aéreo. According to police investigations, the pilot was allegedly linked to a drug trafficker who transported cocaine for Mexican cartels and was the target of the Federal Police’s Operation Terra Fértil, carried out in July.

THE TUCSON

Attorney Nilton Severi, who is representing Tucson in the case, states that, since it provides an operational service, the company is entitled to contract renewals, regardless of bidding. He bases his claim on article 40 of the Brazilian Aeronautics Code, which states that “the use of airport areas by air service providers for their dispatch, office, workshop and warehouse facilities or for shelter, repair and refueling of aircraft is exempt from the public bidding regime.”

Tucson is contesting the order to vacate the property because it was issued in a separate lawsuit filed by PRS. “The company should have gone through the lawsuits that are already underway and not filed a new lawsuit,” the lawyer says. “There was no factual change, other than the replacement of Infraero by PRS, which justifies the vacating of the property.” Another point in question is that the space was granted to PRS before the conclusion of the main lawsuits, that is, in the midst of the legal dispute. All lawsuits were brought together for joint judgment in the 4th Panel of the TRF-3.

The lawyer denies that Tucson is in default. He claims that the company deposited more than R$2 million in a court account as rent for the hangar. The amounts take into account the correction by the General Market Price Index (IGP-M), as initially provided for in the contract, which has now expired, but Infraero has been arguing that the amount is much lower than the value charged.

The information is from the newspaper The State of S. Paulo.