Tag: Aereas

Emirates and Azul expand partnership

January 15, 2024 / WIL BALDWIN

Dubai, UAE, January 15, 2024 – Emirates and Azul Linhas Aereas Brasileiras S.A. (Azul) have taken their partnership to new heights with the launch of a reciprocal loyalty program offering. Emirates Skywards and TudoAzul frequent flyer members can now earn and redeem Miles across a joint network of more than 290 destinations worldwide. The two carriers launched a codeshare partnership in 2021 to provide customers enhanced connectivity to/from eight cities in Brazil to Emirates’ global network via Sao Paulo.

More opportunities to earn Miles

Under the agreement, Emirates Skywards members can earn Miles while traveling across Azul’s network of more than 150 destinations. Skywards members earn up to 1 Skywards Mile per mile flown in Economy class, and up to 1.5 Skywards Miles per mile flown in Business Class. Members can also redeem flight rewards on Azul Economy Class on emirates.com (starting from 8,000 Miles for a one-way reward ticket) and Azul Business Class (starting from 17,500 Miles for a one-way reward ticket). The partnership will also enable TudoAzul members to earn Miles across Emirates’ global network of more than 130 destinations, across six continents. Azul members can also enjoy flight rewards on Emirates Economy and Business Class cabins.*

Connecting Brazil to the world

Emirates currently operates a daily A380 service to Sao Paulo, featuring its highly lauded Premium Economy cabin. The airline also operates a Boeing 777-300ER service between Dubai and Rio de Janeiro, which also connects travellers onwards to Buenos Aires. The codeshare agreement with Emirates and Azul allows customers to connect to/from Rio de Janeiro, Santos Dumont (SDU), Belem (BEL) Belo Horizonte (CNF), Cuiaba (CGB), Curitiba (CWB), Juazeiro Do Norte (JDO), Porto Alegre (POA) and Recife (REC) airports on flights operated by Azul to Emirates flights from Sao Paulo (GRU) to Dubai and beyond with a single ticket.

Brazilian Airline GOL Says Delta Air Exits Stake

December 11, 2019 / WIL BALDWIN

PRYCBK Delta airlines airplane preparing for landing in the blue sky at day time in international airport

Dec 11 (Reuters) – Brazil’s GOL Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA said late Tuesday that Delta Air lines Inc has sold more than 32.9 million shares it held in the company, a few months after the Atlanta-based airline announced its decision to exit stake.

Delta’s decision to sell its stake was expected, following its acquisition of a 20% stake in GOL competitor LATAM Airlines Group SA for $1.9 billion in September.

Delta did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

The deal with LATAM Airlines was Delta’s largest since it merged with Northwest Airlines a decade ago, and ended the Chilean carrier’s ties with American Airlines Group.

Delta’s deal with Latin America’s largest carrier would give it a bigger footprint in the region, where American Airlines has been leading the charts.

American Airlines confirmed in October it was negotiating a possible partnership with GOL, after a newspaper reported that the two companies were in contact the same day that Delta bought its stake in LATAM.

The structure or content of any potential partnership was unclear, Brazil’s Valor Economico said at the time.

(Reporting by Bhargav Acharya in Bengaluru, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)

Lufthansa, Deutsche Bahn Settle Air Cargo Dispute

August 30, 2019 / WIL BALDWIN

German flag carrier Lufthansa and German national railway Deutsche Bahn have reached agreement on a long-festering dispute concerning an air cargo cartel.

The settlement was announced Aug. 26, although details are being kept confidential by mutual agreement.

The settlement ends a dispute before the Cologne regional court that has been ongoing since 2013.

Settling parties are DB Barnsdale, a wholly owned subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn, and Lufthansa Group member companies Lufthansa Cargo, Swiss International Air Lines and Deutsche Lufthansa.

Click the link for the full story! https://finance.yahoo.com/news/lufthansa-deutsche-bahn-settle-air-170533046.html

Azul Says Rivals Blocked Carrier From Profitable Route

May 9, 2019 / WIL BALDWIN

SAO PAULO, May 9 (Reuters) – Brazilian airline Azul SA’s chief executive said on Thursday that its two larger competitors had barred the carrier from providing a competing air shuttle service on the highly profitable Sao Paulo to Rio de Janeiro route.

“Essentially what they did was they had a shutdown plan to keep us out,” CEO John Rodgerson told Reuters in an interview, referring to competitors Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes and LATAM Airlines Group.

The comments come weeks after Azul engineered a plan to break into the Sao Paulo-Rio de Janeiro route, by far the most transited in South America, but it fell apart after Gol and LATAM intervened.

The three airlines have been disputing the airport rights set to be left behind by their struggling competitor Avianca Brasil, which was scheduled to auction the routes this week as part of a bankruptcy process.

Azul, Brazil’s No. 3 airline, initially reached a deal with Avianca Brasil, but a few weeks later Gol and LATAM reached a different deal with Avianca Brasil’s key creditors, which was ultimately approved and sidelined Azul.

Both plans hinged on a successful Avianca Brasil bankruptcy auction, but the event was recently suspended indefinitely, meaning that even Gol and LATAM may not be able to get the airport rights they had agreed to buy.

“I don’t think they ever had the intention of closing on the deal,” Rodgerson said of Gol and LATAM’s agreement with Avianca Brasil.

Gol and LATAM have previously denied any anti-competitive stance.

Brazil’s antitrust regulator CADE said in April that it was concerned about a potential takeover by Brazil’s two major airlines, and that it preferred to see Azul or a new airline take over Avianca Brasil’s airport rights.

The rift also led Azul to leave Brazil’s airline industry group, known as ABEAR, late last month.

“I think the way they acted was inappropriate and not in the best interest of the industry,” Rodgerson said. “I don’t think we share the same values.”

Rodgerson gave the interview as part of Azul’s first quarter results announcement, in which higher operational costs weighed significantly, sending profits down 20% to 137.7 million reais ($35.06 million), despite significantly higher revenue compared to the same period last year.

While revenue grew 16% to 2.5 billion reais, personnel costs surged 37% amid continued expansion at the company, as well as the expiration of a payroll tax incentive.

“It’s kind of the new norm,” Rodgerson said.

Fuel costs also increased significantly, while other undisclosed costs jumped 34% to 224 million reais in the period.

Azul and its Brazilian competitors have faced higher costs in recent quarters due to the continued depreciation of the local currency, the real. While passengers buy their tickets in reais, many of the airline’s expenses, such as fuel, are denominated in the stronger U.S. dollar.

($1 = 3.9393 reais)

(Reporting by Marcelo Rochabrun; editing by Bernadette Baum and Bill Trott)

Brazil Airline Azul’s Profits Drop 20% on Higher Expenses

May 9, 2019 / WIL BALDWIN

SAO PAULO, May 9 (Reuters) – Higher operational costs weighed on Brazil’s No. 3 airline, Azul SA, sending profits in the first quarter down 20% to 137.7 million reais ($35.06 million), despite significantly higher revenue compared to the same period last year.

While revenue grew 16% to 2.5 billion reais, personnel costs surged 37% amid continued expansion at the company.

Fuel costs also increased significantly, while other undisclosed costs jumped 34% to 224 million reais in the period.

Earlier this year, Azul signed a tentative deal that ultimately fell through to take over a set of coveted domestic routes that were to be auctioned off by its rival Avianca Brasil, which is going through a bankruptcy protection process.

The routes were then set to go to its two larger competitors, Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes and LATAM Airlines Group, dealing a blow to Azul as it had hoped to break into the lucrative Sao Paulo-Rio de Janeiro route.

That route is currently dominated by Gol and LATAM and is considered to be among the most profitable in the country.

At the last minute, a judge indefinitely suspended Avianca’s auction which was due earlier this week.

($1 = 3.9273 reais) (Reporting by Marcelo Rochabrun; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

Brazil’s Gol Will Not Cancel Boeing 737 MAX Order

April 2, 2019 / WIL BALDWIN

FILE PHOTO: An aircraft of Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA departs from Congonhas airport in Sao Paulo, Brazil September 11, 2017. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazil’s largest airline, Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes, will not cancel its orders of Boeing Co’s 737 MAX plane, the model which was involved in two fatal crashes, newspaper Valor Economico reported Gol’s chief executive as saying on Tuesday.

“We will not cancel our orders,” CEO Paulo Kakinoff said. “The 737 MAX is probably the best airplane ever made.”

Gol is going through a significant fleet transformation and has bet heavily on the Boeing 737 MAX, with over 100 planes scheduled to be delivered in the next few years.

The airline has so far received seven aircraft, which it grounded after an Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed in March, the second accident involving that plane model in a span of five months.

Kakinoff added that he thinks it is possible that the 737 MAX planes will fly again by July. That decision is in the hands of regulators around the world.

Gol has flown Boeing planes exclusively since its founding and is the U.S. planemaker’s largest client in Latin America.

(Reporting by Marcelo Rochabrun; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Susan Thomas)

Embraer and Azul Firm Up Order for Additional E195-E2 jets

December 19, 2018 / WIL BALDWIN

São José dos Campos, Brazil, December 19th, 2018 – Embraer and Azul Linhas Aéreas Brasileiras S.A. have signed a contract for a firm order for a previously announced 21 E195-E2 jets. This agreement was revealed as a Letter of Intent (LoI) at the Farnborough Airshow, in July. This contract has a value of USD 1.4 billion, based on current list prices, and will be included in Embraer’s 2018 fourth-quarter backlog.

This contract is in addition to the 30 E195-E2 jets ordered by the airline in 2015, raising Azul’s total order to 51 Embraer E2 aircraft. Azul is the launch operator of the E195-E2 and will receive the first aircraft in 2019.

Embraer is the world’s leading manufacturer of commercial jets with up to 150 seats. The Company has 100 customers from all over the world operating the ERJ and E-Jet families of aircraft. For the E-Jets program alone, Embraer has logged almost 1,800 orders and 1,500 deliveries, redefining the traditional concept of regional aircraft.

story and image from http://www.embraer.com

LATAM Airlines Posts Steep Third-Quarter Profit Fall

November 21, 2018 / WIL BALDWIN

SANTIAGO (Reuters) – LATAM Airlines (LTM.SN), the biggest airline group in Latin America, reported a steep fall in third-quarter profit due to lower passenger demand in Argentina and Brazil as well as higher fuel prices and competition from low-cost airlines.

LATAM reported a net profit of $53 million for the quarter, down from $160 million a year earlier, according to a securities filing.

But it said it was maintaining its guidance for the year, expecting an overall operating margin for 2018 of between 6.5 and 8 percent. It is focused on cost-cutting to offset higher expenses.

“We are transporting more passengers with a leaner organization,” a company executive told analysts on a conference call.

Morgan Stanley raised its target price for LATAM shares traded in the New York stock exchange to $9 following the earnings release, from a previous target price of $8.80.

Shares were up 3.4 percent at $9.26 on Wednesday morning.

Demand in the quarter slowed in Brazil due to a weaker local currency, and demand fell significantly in Argentina, where the local currency faced an abrupt devaluation during the quarter, reducing passengers’ purchasing power.

“We carried more passengers in all our markets except Argentina, where we cut capacity this year,” an executive said.

Lower demand and increased fuel expenses due to higher oil prices has slashed profits across regional airlines. One of LATAM’s biggest competitors, Brazil’s Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA (GOLL4.SA), reported a loss of $110 million during the quarter.

Market conditions prompted LATAM to renegotiate commitments for future aircraft purchases, achieving a reduction of $2.3 billion in fleet expenses through 2021, the company said.

The airline will also boost the number of available seats in some of its aircraft by 3 percent as improving utilization and seat count may allow it to grow with fewer aircraft.

Revenue declined by 5 percent to $2.5 billion in the quarter compared with the same period in 2017.

In the quarter, LATAM spent the equivalent of 30 percent of its revenue on fuel, compared with 21 percent a year earlier.

In comparison, Gol spent 37 percent of its revenue on fuel in the same quarter, up from 26 percent a year earlier.

(Reporting by Antonio de la Jara in Santiago and Marcelo Rochabrun in Sao Paulo; Writing by Marcelo Rochabrun; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

Gol Says Brazil’s Foreign Qwnership Ban Is Outdated

November 14, 2018 / WIL BALDWIN

NEW YORK, Nov 14 (Reuters) – Decades-old regulations barring foreigners from owning Brazil’s airlines are outdated and “might make no sense anymore,” the top executive of Brazil’s largest airline, Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA, said on Wednesday.

Foreigners are limited by law to a 20 percent stake in any Brazilian airline’s voting stock. But while Brazil may be entering an economic liberalization phase – far-right President-elect Jair Bolsonaro has vowed to cut spending and privatize state companies – Gol Chief Executive Officer Paulo Kakinoff said it is unclear whether the new administration will seek to loosen the existing regulations.

“Our company has always been in favor of bringing to our country all the conditions to have access to foreign capital without any kind of restriction,” Kakinoff told Reuters in an interview. “This should be one of the positive effects of having some change in the current legislation.”

Outgoing President Michel Temer has said he is in favor of allowing full foreign ownership. In 2017, he said he would enact this change through executive action, only to change his mind and submit a bill to Congress, where the plan has stalled.

Kakinoff added that Gol is not currently in talks with Delta Air Lines Inc, which owns a 9.5 percent stake in Gol preferred shares, or any other entity, about taking a bigger stake in the Brazilian carrier.

In October, Gol said it planned to acquire full control of its listed loyalty program, a subsidiary called Smiles Fidelidade SA.

Gol’s stock surged in response, while Smiles’ plummeted almost 40 percent in one day.

Gol Chief Financial Officer Richard Lark said the airline needed to incorporate Smiles to avoid “competitive disadvantages,” especially with its largest local rival, Latam Airlines Group SA, which earlier this year decided to gobble up its loyalty program company, called Multiplus SA.

A key difference in the transactions, however, is that Latam offered cash to investors, while Gol is offering only its own preferred stock, with the exchange ratio yet to be defined.

Some minority shareholders have criticized the transaction, saying they will lose voter rights if their Smiles shares are exchanged for Gol shares, a charge the airline disputes.

“Although the company owns preferred shares in the operational company, decisions about the airline and the loyalty program will continue to be taken at the board of Gol. It won’t be a shell company,” Lark said.

Reporting by Marcelo Rochabrun; Editing by Dan Grebler

Image from www.voegol.com

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