The state-owned Brazilian postal operator, ECT (Empresa de Correios e Telégrafos), is seekinggovernment approval to create its own air cargo company amid a wide-ranging restructuring, the
country’s press has reported.ECT is currently negotiating to buy aircaft from Brazilian manufacturer Embrear, according tonewspapers, which will allow it to compete with air freight companies it currently uses for mailtransport, Skymaster and Variglog. It is reportedly considering converted passenger planes on costgrounds.
ECT has asked the Brazilian government to approve its plans by the end of this year.
In April this year, a Brazilian commercial court suspended a EUR 50 million tender by ECT fornight air mail services, saying the contract was 60% overvalued. Skymaster and another freightairline, Total, were cited as bidding for the contract.
There have been widespread corruption allegations in Brazil over the over-valuing of publiccontracts and bribes paid to civil servants to secure them. ECT is one of the organisations underthe spotlight, though it denies any wrongdoing by its employees.
Now it seems ECT has finally tired of the allegations over its outsourcing contracts anddecided to form a company that threatens to take away up to BRL 450 million (EUR 168 million) ofbusiness Skymaster and Variglog currently hold with the postal company.
Meanwhile, ECT president Carlos Custodio said that 540 management posts would be axed in therestructuring, which is aimed at securing new market niches, taking over the air mail business andrevamping the financial services businesses currently run by Banco Postal, according to financialpublication Valor Economico.
ECT, which last year had revenues of BRL 8.5 billion (EUR 3.17 billion), and a profit of BRL396 million (EUR 147.6 million), would have “positive results” this year, Custodio is reported assaying, and the top-level restructuring would “save wages and speed up the decision-makingprocess.”
