VASP

If you take an interest in Brazilian aviation, you quickly come across three big names that no longer exist: Varig, Transbrasil – and VASP. The São Paulo airline was a fixture in the skies over Brazil for more than seven decades, above all with the Boeing 737-200 at the city airport Congonhas. This page sums up what made VASP what it was, which aircraft it flew and how to recognize it on old photos.

VASP at a glance

VASP – spelled out Viação Aérea São Paulo – was a historic Brazilian airline. It was founded on November 4, 1933, in São Paulo and began flight operations a few days later. As early as 1935 the state of São Paulo took the majority, and so it remained for almost six decades: VASP was a state-owned regional company that grew into one of the country’s largest airlines.

Its home was Congonhas Airport in the middle of São Paulo. The airport was so closely tied to the airline that it was at times popularly called “Campo da VASP”. Later the international airport São Paulo Guarulhos was added as a second base.

In 1990 VASP was privatized. Under its new owner, the airline ventured into international long-haul – an excursion that lasted only a few years. From the end of the 1990s things went downhill, and in January 2005 the then aviation authority DAC banned scheduled service.

The history in stages

The beginnings were modest. The first aircraft were two small Monospar ST-4s with room for only three passengers. The first regular routes connected São Paulo with towns in the interior such as Ribeirão Preto and São José do Rio Preto. The breakthrough came with the link between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, which VASP launched with the Junkers Ju 52 – the seed of the later air bridge service between the two metropolises.

In the 1960s and 1970s, VASP was one of Brazil’s big domestic airlines. International traffic was dominated in this period by Varig, which after the demise of Panair do Brasil in 1965 handled the country’s international traffic almost alone for a long time. VASP concentrated on the huge domestic network – and the small, robust 737-200 was a perfect fit for exactly that.

Codes and callsign

• IATA code VP: appeared in the flight number, so on tickets, departure boards and in timetables.
• ICAO code VSP: appeared in the air traffic control flight plan.
• Callsign VASP: this is how the crews checked in on the radio.

How the two code systems relate is explained in the article on IATA and ICAO codes. For your archive, what matters most: since 2005 no aircraft has flown under VP or VSP any more. If one of these codes shows up in a present-day database, it belongs to historic entries – or was reassigned later. So always check the date of the shot.

Privatization and expansion under Canhedo

In September 1990 the state of São Paulo sold the majority of VASP. The bid went to a group around the entrepreneur Wagner Canhedo from Brasília, in which employees of the airline also held a stake. Canhedo became owner and president – and reorganized VASP.

The airline now pushed abroad. From the early 1990s it deployed widebody jets on international routes and expanded its international network step by step. Destinations named include Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Miami, Toronto, Brussels, Zurich, Frankfurt, Madrid, Barcelona, Athens, Casablanca, Seoul and Osaka as well as destinations in South America and the Caribbean. For an airline that had operated almost only domestic service for decades, this was an enormous step.

In parallel, the Canhedo group bought into other airlines in South America: these included the Bolivian flag carrier Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano, Ecuatoriana de Aviación from Ecuador and the Argentine Transportes Aéreos Neuquén. VASP also ran its own cargo division, VASPEX.

VASP’s fleet

Over more than 70 years, VASP flew a whole series of types. For spotters, the jets from the late 1960s on are of most interest, because many photos of them still exist.

Type	Period at VASP	Use	Spotter note
Boeing 737-200	1969–2005	Domestic, backbone of the fleet	Slim, long engines under the wing
Boeing 727-200	1977–2005	Domestic, also cargo	Three engines at the rear, T-tail
Airbus A300B2	1982–2005	Busy domestic routes	Only three examples – rare
Boeing 737-300	1986–2004	Domestic	Thick engines with a flattened bottom
McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30	1991–1996	International	Third engine in the vertical stabilizer
McDonnell Douglas MD-11	from 1992, retired around 2000	International	Winglets and a longer fuselage than the DC-10

Before that, VASP flew, among others, the Douglas DC-3 or C-47, the Vickers Viscount as its first turboprop and two BAC One-Elevens, with which the jet age began at VASP in 1968. The Japanese NAMC YS-11 was also part of the fleet for a time.

The Boeing 737-200 is the type most people think of with VASP. The airline got its first examples in 1969 and flew the type until its last day of operation – so for more than 35 years. The manufacturer was Boeing. The two widebody types DC-10 and MD-11 came from McDonnell Douglas, the A300 from Airbus.

737-200 or 737-300? How to tell them apart

On old VASP photos from Congonhas you almost always see a Boeing 737. A few details reveal whether it is a -200 or a -300.

The surest way is to look at the engines: the narrow tubes of the -200 are unmistakable. If you want to learn more about recognizing older jets, the guide Recognizing vintage aircraft will help.

How to recognize VASP

VASP’s livery was mostly white and blue over the decades, with the name “VASP” on the fuselage. The logo changed several times – roughly, variants from the years from 1950, from 1985 and from 2001 can be distinguished. For a reliable match the design alone is therefore not ideal, especially if you do not know the exact era.

The registration is more reliable. Brazilian aircraft carry the prefix PP- (alongside PR-, PT- and others). At VASP, strikingly many registrations began with PP-S, for example on aircraft from the Viscount and 737 era. You can find more on country prefixes in the article on country marks on aircraft and generally under Understanding aircraft registrations.

The end: crisis, grounding, bankruptcy

The crisis began gradually. The international expansion was expensive, the fleet aged, and competition grew in the home market. In the early 2000s VASP slipped from second to fourth place in the Brazilian market. New carriers such as GOL bet on low fares with modern 737s, while VASP still flew many 737-200s from the 1970s.

Some aircraft stayed parked at Congonhas for years after the shutdown. In 2011 the last aircraft remaining there were cut up and sold as scrap. If you are interested in such storage areas, you will find more on the subject in the article on aircraft boneyards.

Others benefited from the decline: the former TAM – now LATAM Airlines Brasil – and GOL took over large parts of the domestic market in this period. With VASP, a name disappeared that had been part of everyday life in São Paulo for decades. The same happened to Transbrasil, which had to give up as early as 2001, and, not long after, to Varig.

VASP in everyday spotting today

Of course you will no longer catch a VASP flight today. The airline remains exciting all the same – especially for collectors and archive fans.

Tracing aircraft via registrations is especially rewarding. Many aircraft changed operators after their time at VASP and received a new registration in the process. How such changes work is explained in the article on re-registering aircraft. And if you want to know how old an aircraft in a photo was, you will find pointers under Finding out an aircraft’s age.

Common mix-ups

• Confusing VASP with Varig – both were big Brazilian airlines, but Varig came from Porto Alegre, was a Star Alliance member and long dominated international traffic.
• Taking every white and blue 737 in Brazil for VASP – other airlines also used similar colors. The registration decides.
• Equating the 737-200 and 737-300 – the engine shape gives away the generation immediately.
• Logging the MD-11 as a DC-10 – the MD-11 has winglets and a longer fuselage.
• Taking VP for a current code – VASP has not flown since 2005; later uses of a code have nothing to do with the airline.
• Dating the end to 2008 – bankruptcy came in 2008, but scheduled service ended as early as January 2005.

Conclusion

For over seven decades, VASP was a fixture in Brazil: from a state-owned regional carrier with the Ju 52 through the big 737-200 operator at Congonhas to the short long-haul adventure with the MD-11. Privatization first brought a fresh start, then the crisis – and in 2005 the end of flight operations. For spotters, VASP lives on in archives today, and with registration and type almost any old photo can be placed with confidence.