July 25 (Bloomberg) -- Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva faces growing pressure to fire Defense Minister Waldir Pires, the top aviation official, after the country's two worst air disasters triggered a near-breakdown in air travel.

Lawmakers, passengers and newspaper editorials are urging Lula to remove 80-year-old Pires. They say he ignored warnings about unsafe airport conditions that may have contributed to last week's crash of a TAM SA jetliner at Sao Paulo's Congonhas airport, the deadliest in Brazil's history.

More than 350 people have perished in two plane crashes since September, putting Pires at the center of Lula's biggest crisis of confidence since he won a second term last year. The TAM disaster caps a year of growing chaos in the aviation system fueled by labor unrest, equipment failures and surging passenger demand in addition to the crashes.

``What the country needs is a rapid solution, and Pires no longer has the authority or the window of opportunity to do it,'' Gustavo Fruet, an opposition member of the lower house committee probing air travel, said in an interview from Curitiba, the capital of the southern state of Parana.

Chaotic Conditions

Lula plans to name Nelson Jobim, a former Supreme Court president, as the new defense minister, Folha de S. Paulo newspaper reported today, without saying where it obtained the information. Defense Ministry spokeswoman Flavia Oliveira declined to comment when contacted by Bloomberg News.

Of the 37 flight departures at Congonhas airport scheduled for this morning, 20 were canceled and one was delayed, airport authority Infraero said. TAM canceled 36 flights in and out of Congonhas and rerouted 25 to the international airport. Yesterday, TAM canceled 68 flights after pilots refused to use the facility's runways in the rain, Folha de S. Paulo reported.

Conditions for passengers grew more chaotic yesterday as Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA, Brazil's second-largest airline, told customers to avoid air travel in the country this month. The warning came hours before the government announced an indefinite ban on ticket sales for Congonhas, the nation's busiest airport.

Shares Fall

The TAM Airbus A320 that crashed July 17 killing 199 people left the runway and plowed into a building while trying to land in rainy conditions.

The crash led to the immediate closure of one of Congonhas' two landing strips and to government orders cutting back on the number of permitted flights at the urban airport.

TAM shares fell for a sixth day yesterday, dropping 1.3 reais ($0.70), or 2.4 percent, to 53.05 reais. The stock has fallen 20 percent since July 17. Gol shares fell for a seventh day, dropping 0.8 percent to 50 reais. The stock has dropped 11 percent since July 17.

``It was a sector that everybody believed in and had everything it needed to grow,'' Mel Marques Fernandes, an analyst with Brascan Corretora in Rio de Janeiro, said in a phone interview. ``All the recent events stain the industry's image.''

Talk Shows

According to a Datafolha poll released July 22, 43 percent of Sao Paulo city residents said Lula has failed to deal with the country's aviation chaos and 70 percent said the government isn't putting much effort into solving the problem. The poll of 1,092 people, taken on July 20, has a margin of error of three percentage points.

Aviation issues are now dominating talk shows in Brazil and prompted Lula, 61, to address the nation on July 20 for the first time since October.

``Lula is taking too long to fire Pires because he respects everything Pires did for the country's leftist movement,'' said David Fleischer, a political scientist at the University of Brasilia. ``But finally, he understood that the air crisis is a serious problem and can harm his popularity and his Workers' Party during the 2008 municipal elections.''

`Accidents Happen'

Pires replaced Vice President Jose Alencar as defense minister in April 2006, putting him in charge of all aspects of the country's aviation system from airports to air traffic control. Pires began his political career in Salvador, capital of the northeastern state of Bahia, in the 1950s.

Political analyst Andre Cesar at Brasilia-based research company CAC Consultoria said the crisis makes keeping Pires ``untenable'' for Lula.

Pires, at a July 20 news conference in Brasilia, said he hasn't offered to resign, noting he serves at the pleasure of the president.

``Accidents happen all over the world, in all cities and even in our homes,'' Pires told reporters. ``The government is extremely concerned about finding a solution to the problem.''

Brazilian opposition lawmakers have attacked the government's management of the air travel system since September, when a Gol passenger plane collided over the Amazon with a business jet owned by a U.S. company, killing 154 people. The role air traffic controllers played in the disaster is still under investigation.

Dangers at Congonhas

The dangers at Congonhas became a national concern in February when a judge, citing short runways, a decaying tarmac and slippery conditions during the city's frequent rains, barred some planes from landing

Even members of Lula's party said they're impatient.

``Lula needs to take measures to significantly change civil aviation policy even if it means firing top-ranking cabinet members,'' said Marco Maia, a federal deputy from Lula's Workers' Party who almost always backs the government.

To contact the reporters on this story: Katia Cortes in Brasilia at at kcortes@bloomberg.net; Telma Marotto in Sao Paulo at +55- at Tmarotto1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 25, 2007 09:03 EDT