Rio-Sul Serviços Aéreos Regionais S/A was a regional airline headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, operating scheduled services to southern Brazil. Its main base was São Paulo–Congonhas Airport, with hubs at Porto Alegre Airport and Santos Dumont Airport.

History

On November 11, 1975, the Brazilian Federal Government created the Brazilian Integrated System of Regional Air Transportation and divided the country into five different regions, for which five newly created regional airlines received a concession to operate air services. Rio Sul was the fourth of those regional airlines to be made operational. Founded on August 24, 1976, Rio Sul had its services start on September 8, 1976. Its operational area comprised roughly the Southern and parts of the Southeast regions of Brazil, specifically the states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná, Rio de Janeiro, and parts of São Paulo, and Espírito Santo. The airline was originally formed by Top Táxi Aéreo, Banco Bradesco, Atlântica-Boavista Insurance, and Varig. In 2002, the administration of Rio Sul (which included its former subsidiary Nordeste Linhas Aéreas Regionais) was merged with Varig. The brand Rio Sul was part of the assets sold as VRG Linhas Aéreas, although its debts remained under the judicial entity Viação Aérea Rio-Grandense, which uses the brand name Flex Linhas Aéreas. As a result of accumulated debts of around BRL10 billion (US$5,7 billion, EUR4,5 billion), on August 20, 2010, at the request of the administrator, the 1st Business Court of Rio de Janeiro declared Flex, which included the remaining assets of Rio-Sul, bankrupt and initiated the process of liquidation.

Services

Rio Sul operated services to the following scheduled domestic destinations (in January 2005): Caxias do Sul, Belo Horizonte, Brasília, Londrina, Maringá, Passo Fundo, São Paulo and Vitória.

Fleet

Rio Sul consisted of the following aircraft:

Incidents and accidents

According to the Aviation Safety Network's database, Rio Sul Serviços Aéreos Regionais has never experienced a fatal accident in its 26-year-history, though four hull-losses have occurred: