The Ministry of Ports and Airports published Portaria nº 43 in Brazil’s Official Gazette on 14 July 2026 setting new parameters for how the government will negotiate future Air Services Agreements (ASAs). The biggest change is that Brazilian negotiators are now authorised to seek up to 7th-Freedom traffic rights for mixed (passenger-and-cargo) operations instead of the 5th-Freedom ceiling that has been in place for almost a decade. Seventh-Freedom rights allow an airline to operate between two foreign points without touching its home base. In practical terms, a Brazilian carrier could, for example, run a Buenos Aires–Lima flight—or a Paraguayan carrier could link Recife to Bogotá—so long as both governments include the right in their bilateral deal. The Portaria also instructs Brazilian officials to prioritise regulatory convergence with South American partners, mutual recognition of licences and certificates, and the gradual removal of operational barriers that raise costs for international airlines. By pushing the market toward an “open-skies-lite” model, Brasília hopes to stimulate competition, add seat capacity, and reduce fares on key corporate corridors in the Southern Cone. For global mobility managers the measure matters because it should increase non-stop city-pair options for assignees and business travellers based in Brazil. Seventh-Freedom routes operated by foreign carriers can create new one-stop itineraries between Asia or North America and secondary Brazilian cities, improving connectivity for expatriate families. The Portaria’s language on mutual recognition of licences may also shorten lead-times for obtaining Brazilian validations of foreign pilot and engineer certifications—an important issue for multinational carriers deploying crews into Brazil. The regulation takes immediate effect, but each additional freedom still has to be negotiated country by country. The Ministry has signalled that talks with Argentina, Chile and Peru will be prioritised in the current quarter; companies that rely on intra-regional mobility should track the agenda closely and adjust travel budgets once new rights are formalised.
