Azul Airlines Begins Flying to Second Destination in Portugal

Azul Brazilian Airlines started flying to Porto, Portugal on Monday, June 3. This is the second destination for the airline in Portugal, which already operates flights between Brazil and Lisbon. Porto is the second-largest city in Portugal and experienced significant tourism increase in the last few years. The flight between Campinas, 50 miles from São […]

Air Europa Seeks Entry into Brazil’s Domestic Market

Air Europa applied last Friday to operate domestic flights within Brazil. The move is a direct result of new laws in Brazil allowing foreign airlines 100 percent ownership of Brazilian airlines, whereas foreign ownership was previously limited to 25 percent. Brazil’s congress approved last Wednesday the new law, which included the prohibition for airlines to […]

Avianca Brasil Auction Suspended by Sao Paulo Court

A court decision on Monday suspended the auction of Avianca Brazil assets which would help the airline pay its debt. Swissport AG, an aviation service company providing airport ground and cargo handling services, made the request to halt the auction. The company claims $4.3 million USD in debt by Avianca. BR Distribuidora, a subsidiary of […]

Airline Networks: A Marketing Perspective

Network design is one of the fundamental drivers of airline costs and revenues. Airlines routes require detailed planning and may require a whole year to be implemented. Quite often, we see airlines announcing new routes one year ahead. The process involves many professionals from different departments, each one trying to balance different aspects. Operations can […]

Avianca Brazil Assets Go To Auction

The auction of Avianca Brazil assets is scheduled for May 7 after many months of negotiations with creditors. The company’s assets are divided into seven units, which will be sold separately. The units consist mostly of slots at Guarulhos, Congonhas and Santos Dumond airports, which are very attractive for business travelers. The idea is to […]

Opinion: An Overlooked Reason Why Airlines Fail

Managing an airline is like playing drums, it looks easy and many people can make some noise but when the music gets complicated, you see who really knows how to play and who can only make noise. A famous quote says, “What we learn with history is that men do not learn with history.” I […]

Creditors Approve Avianca Brazil’s Recovery Plan

After seven hours of discussion, Avianca Brazil was able to approve its judicial recovery plan in a heated assembly of creditors held this Friday in São Paulo. Of the total creditors, 77 percent voted in favor of Avianca’s proposal, which should now be approved by Judge Tiago Limongi of the first Court of Bankruptcy and […]

Brazil Opens Further Concessions for Airport Purchasing

As part of a growing business model intended to attract more investments in aviation infrastructure, the Brazilian government concluded on Friday one more round of airport concessions. The more friendly rules for concessions attracted many foreign investors generating $630 million in revenue, almost 10 times more than expected. The unexpected result came as a sign […]

Azul Brazilian Airlines Expresses Interest in Avianca Brazil Assets

In a surprising move, the CEO of Azul Brazilian Airlines, John Rodgerson, announced that Azul is interested in buying most of the assets from Avianca Brazil, which is going through bankruptcy protection. The statement came as a surprise because Rodgerson had made previous comments showing no interest in buying Avianca. The proposal came because of […]

WestJet Begins Service to Atlanta

A special celebration at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Sunday marked the first WestJet flight to the capital of Georgia. The event included a special speech by the Atlanta Airport General Manager, John Selden, and a speech by WestJet CFO, Harry Taylor followed by a ribbon-cutting ceremony. WestJet became the only airline connecting Calgarians […]