Typhoonpilot

With ALPA having fully distracted the pilot group in a crusade against a low fare trans-Atlantic start-up the real threat starts to emerge from elsewhere. Neeleman is going after the high yielding business class flyer.



Azul targets business travellers with US flights


By: Ghim-Lay Yeo

Washington DC


Brazil's Azul plans to target the corporate traveller with its inaugural international flights to the USA, and will offer a full-service product with lie-flat business class seats and Skycouches in economy plus, it tells Flightglobal.

"We are a heavily corporate airline today, 65% of our business is business traffic," says Azul's chief executive David Neeleman. Pointing to the two million travellers that are signed up to Azul's frequent flyer programme, Neeleman says it makes sense to target business travellers for Azul's USA flights, regardless of whether they are flying for work or leisure.

Azul plans to eventually operate seven Airbus A330-200s and five A350-900s on its international flights. The airline had previously announced it will lease six A330s, but tells Flightglobal it will purchase a seventh from lessor BBAM.

The seven A330s were previously operated by Gulf Air or Emirates at some point. Azul plans to launch the US service in December, and will operate the flights initially with the aircraft still in their previous configuration. Neeleman explains that the lead time to install Azul's chosen seats was too long, so the airline will only get the A330s reconfigured starting in March.

"We don't want to miss the peak season," he says. Azul is aiming 1 December as the start date for its flights from Viracopos-Campinas to Fort Lauderdale, followed by flights to Orlando on 15 December. The carrier will begin service to New York John F. Kennedy in mid-2015.

The aircraft will be reconfigured with Azul's desired layout starting from March at a rate of two aircraft per month, and Neeleman says all seven A330s will be done by June.

When completed, five of the seven A330s will be configured in a high-density layout with 271 seats. The remaining two will be configured with 242 seats.

Azul's high-density configuration will feature 20 lie-flat business class seats, 122 economy plus seats and 129 economy seats. About half of the economy plus seats can be converted into Skycouches, a product designed by Air New Zealand that has since been licensed to other carriers such as China Airlines.

Azul's low-density A330s will offer 35 lie-flat business class seats, 52 economy plus seats and 155 economy class seats. Skycouches will also be available in the low-density A330's economy plus cabin. The carrier's economy plus seats come with a 34in seat pitch, while economy seats have 31in.

The airline says it will likely operate the low-density A330s on the New York flights, taking into account the business travel demand on that route.

Azul has so far received one A330-200, an airframe that was previously operated by Gulf Air and now configured with 246 seats in a two-class layout, the Ascend Fleets database shows. It is scheduled to receive its second A330 this week, says Neeleman.

The carrier will offer a full-service product on board its international flights, including complimentary meals and in-flight entertainment. Azul says all seven A330s will be equipped with Panasonic Avionics' eX3 system.

Despite a full-service offering, Neeleman says the airline's fares will be priced lower than that of legacy competitors. Round-trip economy class fares to Florida could start as low as $600. "We are going to compete well," says Neeleman. "We have significantly lower costs than TAM."

Following Azul's announcement, American Airlines says it will begin non-stop service from Viracopos to Miami as well as New York JFK in December. American and TAM already offer non-stop service between Miami and Sao Paulo Guarulhos.

Oberon

Is there only allowed to be one threat? Since Azul is a threat does that mean NIA is no longer a threat?

Elliot

Oberon, you're exactly right. There are multiple threats, on all fronts, including the jihad airline that Typhoon works for. He's just trying to divert attention from the state-owned airlines such as Etihad, Qatar, & Emirates.

PCLCREW

This is like saying any foreign airlines that operate to the USA is a threat. NIA is a totally different animal, they are using extremely shady tactics. Azul is no more a threat then TAM.

rightside02

Gonna code share with JetBlue ... Def a threat for any larger expansion for b6

yellowfever

The federal government is worse than all the foreign airlines put together.

http://www.aviationinstitute.org/AAIReportNov11.pdf

Typhoonpilot

Ehh, used to work for. Gotta keep up with current events

What kind of racist prejudicial name will you guys use for Azul?

The point of the post was to say that Norwegian, while a competitor, is not going to be half the competitor of Azul. Nor will they have even close to half as big an adverse effect on the U.S. majors as a well run operation that offers a quality product at a good price. Yet all ALPA can talk about is how devastating Norwegian is going to be to the U.S. airline pilots.

Still waiting for someone to show that a U.S. major has pulled out of a European market or otherwise lost yield due to Norwegian's current routes.


TP

Softpayman

Jetblue already code shares with numerous airlines. Unless you saw huge Brazil expansion around the corner Azul is just another code share.

Herkflyr

ALPA has no problem with the Azul's of the world competing. If they can offer a great product at competitive costs then the US carriers will have to vigorously compete--no problem there.

It is the middle eastern airlines that are the pet projects of the various
sheikhs trying to one-up each other, profitability be damned (A380s to and from the sandstorm of Dubai? YGBSM) and the Norwegian "we register in Ireland, and staff from Asia" model of bypassing every conceivable reasonable labor law there is that are the true threats.

Nice try though.

captjns

And ALPA has no problems with US regionals they represent that pay pilots below threshold amounts to qualify for food stamps.