The Brazilian Air Force (FAB) canceled the international tender for the lease of a Boeing 767-300ER jet. The aircraft would serve as a temporary transportation alternative while the C-X2 program, for a dedicated aircraft, is not carried out by the government of Brazil.
Among the reasons cited by the FAB are the changes in the commercial aircraft marketplace affected by the coronavirus pandemic, the Brazilian government’s budgetary scenario and the fact that the new KC-390 freighter, provided by Embraer, has expanded its transport capacity.
The bidding followed the model of a contract signed in 2016 and which equipped the Air Force with a Boeing 767 until May last year. However, the cost estimate was more than double this time, with values close to $40 million compared to $19.7 million.
The lease was launched in 2019 after the FAB canceled another bid, which provided for the purchase of a used Boeing 767-300ER at a price of $ 28 million offered by the company Cloud Aria, or about $12 million more affordable than the lease of three years.
The discrepancy between the values and the Cloud Aria protest caused the leasing bid to be suspended by a federal court in 2019.
Successor to the KC-137
Largest aircraft that has ever flown with the Brazilian Air Force, the Boeing 767-300ER designation “FAB 2900” was received in July 2016 and performed several missions such as aeromedical transport and even VIP when taking former President Michel Temer to the G20 at Germany in 2017.
The jet filled the gap left by the retirement of the KC-137, a military variant of the Boeing 707 converted by the Air Force for air transport and refueling, but which was deactivated in 2013 after incidents.
