Origins: the Air Transportation Group (1999–2001)
SBTA grew out of GTA – Grupo de Transporte Aéreo (Air Transportation Group), formed by graduate students of Aeronautical Infrastructure Engineering at ITA, in São José dos Campos. The group brought together graduate students in air transportation and airports to promote events and debates among academics and industry professionals, aiming to raise the quality of scientific work. Its founders included Milton Valdir de Matos Feitosa, Alessandro Vinicius Marques de Oliveira and Érico Soriano Martins Santana.
In 1999, GTA held the Air Transportation Seminar, which would become the 1st SITRAER, and created its discussion list. The second edition, in 2000, already featured scientific papers presented by students. The cancellation of the 3rd SITRAER, planned for 2001, led to the de facto dissolution of the group.
Foundation (2002)
Still in 2001, the moderating council of GTA's discussion list began working on the idea of an independent scientific society devoted to air transportation. The Brazilian Air Transportation Research Society (Sociedade Brasileira de Pesquisa em Transporte Aéreo) was founded on 3 December 2002 in São José dos Campos, Brazil, as a non-profit civil society. Its founding statute, signed by Érico Soriano Martins Santana as president, was registered in May 2003.
The statute set out to foster, disseminate and promote scientific and technical work on Brazilian air transportation through a discussion list (Rede SBTA), an annual congress, a scientific journal, other publications and events, exchange with similar societies in Brazil and abroad, and grants and awards for students and young researchers.
Symposium and journal
The Society's annual congress is SITRAER – the Air Transportation Symposium, resumed in 2004 and held ever since in partnership with universities and institutions across the country (see the past editions).
SBTA's scientific journal is JBATS – Journal of the Brazilian Air Transportation Research Society (ISSN 1808-3331), published from 2005, with articles selected from SITRAER papers and original submissions, peer reviewed. The preserved issues, from 2005 to 2018, are in the JBATS archive. In those issues, SBTA describes itself as affiliated with the Air Transport Research Society (ATRS).
Boards
The Society is run by a Board elected at the General Assembly for two-year terms. The recorded boards are listed under Boards.