“In early 2014 we started a project with the modest dream of reinventing experiences and the way to explore this Wonderful City. After months of planning, Vertical Rio was born and grew, conquering a market and marking the lives of thousands of people.

We have disrupted the market, brought together amazing people, soared to number 1 on all online travel platforms and were featured in national and international media; TV channels, radio, blogs and even the cover of the largest printed newspaper in the country; everything in a 100% organic and authentic way. It was another proof of the beautiful path we were writing.

As pioneers in Latin America, we conquered a huge relevance in social networks and an entire community that believed in our purpose and in our dream; consumers who have become fans and who today we are proud to call friends.

The above brand manifesto was built in 2017 and I believe it is the best way to express what Vertical Rio has represented in the lives of thousands of passengers that we received here. This is a letter from a passionate entrepreneur, who believed and still believes that Rio de Janeiro has the greatest tourism potential of the entire world; who saw the sparkle in the eyes after each landing, proving that there is absolutely nothing like this city. And really there isn’t.

The truth is that we have always been in love with Rio de Janeiro; and when you love unconditionally, it can never go wrong. We saw a city rising again and being presented with the greatest international events. We became the focus and shined for the whole world. We called her Wonderful again and we were proud to say that we are Cariocas.

We also cried the hard times of the city, but as good lovers that we are, we never lost hope and when we raised our heads, the Christ was there with open arms, showing that everything would be good soon.

We have stopped. We have stopped our helicopter operations in Rio de Janeiro with a feeling of accomplishment. We never thought it would be an easy challenge to undertake an extremely bureaucratic aviation market. We knew that it would be difficult to grow 100% uprightly and ethically in an extremely irregular and not properly supervised industry. We knew it all and we went over it. Until here.

Vertical Rio is a story about authenticity, purpose, innovation and a lot of hard work. We know that much more could be built on this brilliant upward trajectory, but giving up the values that brought us here to continue making a project viable was not an option for us.

I must thank all of you who joined our family during these years, making it happen. To my team, who believed in my purpose from the beginning, to the pilots, coordinators, mechanics, photographers, filmmakers, social media managers, designers, operations and legal teams and everyone who helped us to reinvent the bureaucratic Brazilian market. To the content creators and all the press who believed and helped us to spread our idea; to our business partners, to all rotary-wing aviation industry and the Rio de Janeiro tourism trade, my sincere “thank you” and admiration! These guys deserve all of our respect!

And when numbers turn into names and faces, there are many stories of our passengers that we are proud to tell here, from special dates celebrations to exciting stories of overcoming. This project is ended with great affection from our entire team, but we know and are proud that will be perpetuated forever with thousands of people that we were pleased to receive here.

This is a “thank you” letter, or “obrigado”, as we say here. With great happiness and pride, I recognize that this project was built by extremely passionate people and is just another piece of something much bigger. Great stories are coming and we can't wait to continue our story of reinventing experiences together with you!"  #wearejustgettingstarted