TransBrasil was a Brazilian airline which ceased operations on 3 December 2001. During most of its history, Transbrasil was owned by local entrepreneur Omar Fontana. Its aircraft usually featured a colorful livery, remarkably with a rainbow on the tail fin. Transbrasil base was Brasilia International Airport in Brasilia. From the 1970s and until its demise in 2002, Transbrasil was usually the third largest Brazilian airline after Varig and VASP, serving both domestic and international routes. History The First Years as Sadia (1955–1972) Transbrasil was born in the State of Santa Catarina as a sister company of S/A Indústria e Comércio Concórdia, better known by its acronym Sadia. In 1953 Omar Fontana, one of the sons of the founder of Sadia Attilio Fontana noticed a Douglas DC-3 that remained parked at Joaçaba Airport, near Concórdia, the whole weekend. Omar Fontana came up with the idea of leasing the aircraft for transporting the products of Sadia to São Paulo. In 1954 Sadia acquired its own Douglas DC-3 and flights became daily, having Omar as one of the crew members. However, since it was not an airline with regular schedule, it could not receive subventions from the government. In order to avoid this restriction, on January 5, 1955 he created Sadia S/A – Transportes Aéreos. The first regular flight was operated on March 16, 1956. Sadia enlarged Concórdia Airport so that a Douglas DC-3 could operate with full load and created the first route from Concórdia to Videira, Florianópolis, São Paulo-Congonhas. A short time later, Sadia was also operating to Londrina, Bauru, Ribeirão Preto and Brasília. In November 1957, Sadia established a partnership with Real Transportes Aéreos and became a feeder airline at Florianópolis. Whereas Linneu Gomes got 50% of the shares of Sadia, Omar Fontana became part of the board of Real, where he gained airline experience. At this time Sadia moved headquarters to São Paulo and expanded services to Rio de Janeiro-Santos Dumont and Porto Alegre. This partnership ended in 1961 with the demise of Real and Fontana bought back the shares he had earlier sold to Gomes. In 1962 Sadia bought TASSA – Transportes Aéreos Salvador and increased its presence in Bahia. In 1967 most of Sadia network was eligible to receive subventions from the Federal government and aiming at those subventions Sadia bought five Handley Page Dart Heralds. In 1968 Sadia joined the shuttle service () between Rio de