Aruba’s civil aviation authority revoked the air operator’s certificate of Bestfly Aircraft Management Aruba on May 11, escalating a safety review that had begun with a suspension six days earlier. The company’s aircraft that had been flying commercially were moved into private operations after the decision.
The Department of Civil Aviation of Aruba said the revocation was a regulatory enforcement action taken in the interests of aviation safety and compliance oversight. The move followed the May 5 suspension of the certificate pending further regulatory review and oversight actions.
Bestfly Aircraft Management Aruba is part of the Angola-based Bestfly group, which was founded in 2009 by Nuno Pereira and Alcinda Pereira. Pereira serves as chief executive and Alcinda Pereira as executive director. The group provides aircraft management, charter, ACMI, PSO operations and ground handling services, and the Aruba unit had aircraft operating under its BFY code before the suspension.
The fleet picture around the company is mixed. Its active aircraft include two Global Express jets, a Global 5000 that entered service on May 3, a G450, a G550 and an E175 added in mid-2025. The E175 was deployed on group charters for the oil and gas industry. All of those aircraft had been operating under the BFY code until the suspension and have since been active using their registration as a callsign.
Not every aircraft tied to the operation is moving. A Citation Excel has been parked at Luanda 4 De Fevereiro since December 14, a G450 has been stored at Fort Lauderdale Executive since March 2023, and two G550s are inactive, including one parked at Riga since November 27 and another stored at Vienna since March 2024. The status of one Learjet 45 remains unknown.
Bestfly Aircraft Management Aruba has also been reshaping its fleet over time. The company retired an E190 in mid-2025 with plans to use it for scheduled Caribbean operations, phased out a B737-700(BBJ) later in 2025 and phased out an ATR72-600 in early 2026. It also operated a Falcon 900B for Jetstream Aviation Congo.
The broader Bestfly group has been making changes in Angola as well. It retired two 13-year-old ATR72-600s there, one of which had been parked at Luanda 4 De Fevereiro since January 2025 and the other of which left the fleet in mid-April. Both were reregistered in Guernsey and the Isle of Man in early 2026 and are now parked at Johannesburg O.R. Tambo. Bestfly Cabo Verde, another unit of the group, has an ATR72-600 stored at São Vicente since September 2023.
The revocation closes the aircraft-management unit’s commercial authorization in Aruba, but it does not end the scrutiny. The immediate question is how the group will rework its aircraft use across Aruba, Angola and its other units while regulators keep the spotlight on compliance.
