| Airline: | Rico Linhas Aéreas |
| Iata: | C7 |
| Icao: | RLE |
| Callsign: | RICO |
| Hubs: | Eduardo Gomes International Airport |
| Headquarters: | Manaus, Brazil |
| Key People: | Átila Yurtsever, Bastian Bartoli, Metin Yurtsever, Omer Yurtsever |
Rico Linhas Aéreas S/A was a Brazilian regional airline with its headquarters at Eduardo Gomes International Airport in Manaus, Brazil, authorized to operate scheduled passenger and cargo services in the Amazon region. The airline was grounded on 1 June 2010 and on 7 June 2011 lost its operational license.
Rico Linhas Aéreas was authorized to operate as a regional carrier in 1996, but its history is much older. In 1952, the Turkish immigrant Munur Yurtsever, known as Commander Mickey, who worked as an airplane mechanic in Nova Xavantina, Mato Grosso, bought an aircraft and started to fly in the region. The operations consisted of transportation of cargo to gold-mining locations of the region using small aircraft.
During the 1960s, Mickey started a small charter and air taxi company called Taxi Aéreo Rondônia, specialized in flying to gold-mining centers of Rondônia and headquartered in Porto Velho. During the construction of the Trans-Amazonian highway in the 1970s, the company changed its headquarters to Manaus, and provided air services to the big construction companies that were building the highway.
Later, Yurtsever also created Rico – Rondônia Indústria e Comércio, a company that in 1980 would be merged with Taxi Aéreo Rondônia to create RICO Taxi Aéreo.
From 1974 to 1982 RICO Taxi Aéreo maintained a contract with Petrobras to provide air-transportation while it was searching for oil and natural gas in the Amazonian region. At that time Rico operated 23 Douglas DC-3s being the largest private operator of this type of aircraft in the world.
On 1 November 1996, while maintaining its independent air taxi operations, the owners of RICO Táxi Aéreo created Rico Linhas Aéreas, a regional scheduled airline. In 2005 Rico Linhas Aéreas was the largest regional carrier in Brazil serving Acre, Amazonas, Pará, and Rondônia.[1]
However the 2008 economic crisis forced Rico to dramatically downsize its operations: between January and September 2008, Rico cancelled 90% of its operations reducing its participation to 0.02% of the market, operating only within the state of Amazonas.[2]
Rico Linhas Aéreas temporarily suspended all scheduled flights as of 1 June 2010 for a major operational restructuring. Charter operations however continued.[3] On 7 June 2011 the National Civil Aviation Agency of Brazil cancelled its operational license.[4] RICO Táxi Aéreo however remained operative.
Rico Linhas Aéreas operated services to the following destinations:[5]
Rico Linhas Aéreas fleet included the following aircraft:[6]
| Aircraft | Total | Years of operation | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirante | 5 | 1997–2010 | 2 RICO Taxi Aéreo |
| Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia | 6 | 1997–2010 | |
| 3 | 2003–2008 | ||
| Boeing 737-300QC | 1 | 2006–2007 | |