United Airlines buys stake in Azul Airlines
 

I wonder if this will affect our flying to Brazil since I'm sure this airline will be able to do it cheaper.

United Continental Takes 5% Stake in Brazilian Airline Azul for $100 Million - WSJ

I think Neeleman is looking at 330's. That may be a "twofur" as TAP is in that pig pile somewhere.:eek:

Not just looking; Azul has already started deliveries of A330s and has some A350s in the pipeline after that. They are currently flying up to FLL and MCO. I'll bet we can anticipate some flights to UA hubs (starting with IAH?) shortly.

Weird timing, I just saw 2 Azul 330s sitting on the ramp at Chenault down in Lake Charles.


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Sounds like something similar to the DAL/Virgin wrap around.

Perhaps eventually??

FWIW, DAL bought 49% of Virgin Atlantic. So far, UAL has only grabbed 5% of Azul.

It the thought that counts.......

Yeah.....but Delta has 3 year headstart on UAL, or at least that's the excuse they've been putting out on why they halfass everything.

sounds like UAL wants more international feed in certain places without providing the airlift directly. sort of like "enhanced code sharing." Remember that talk the CAL managers gave us ....."It's all about the network." I wonder if our relationship with Copa is the same or is changing? I would anticipate that UAL management will next grab on to an Asian carrier, then a European carrier, and then maybe a Nordic carrier. Could be a middle eastern carrier, but it looks like that to me they are starting to look at the ghost of Christmas past for inspiration (ala Kellner and his team that went to DAL). This is a play out of their playbook and it's what Delta has been doing.

FWIW, UAL already has established 100% Joint Ventures with an Asian carrier and an European one. The JVs are basically "virtual mergers" approved by the respective govrenments where everything is shared (planning/marketing/revenues/expenses) in a region even if UAL, or the partner, does not even operate on a specific route. The only differential is the paint job on the airplane and the reimbursement of operating expenses. If UAL ever merges with either of these JV partners it will basically entail painting the airplanes and combining employee groups. Virtually everything else is already done.