Brazil opens airline sector to foreign capital

Brazil's Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of parliament, approved a proposal Tuesday, authorizing complete foreign ownership of the country's airline companies.

The original proposal submitted to Congress by suspended President Dilma Rousseff would have allowed foreign capital to control 49 percent in airline companies. However, interim President Michel Temer's government altered the proposal to allow complete foreign ownership.

Now that the proposal has been approved by the chamber, the proposal will go to the Senate.

In the chamber, the proposal was opposed by members from left-wing political parties, who were particularly worried about the possibility of reduced internal flights and layoff of staff in the companies. Endi