Azul debuts its largest aircraft and plans to use it to facilitate the shipment of sushi to the US

The airline Azul made this Thursday (15) its first flight with an Airbus A350 aircraft. It’s the biggest plane the company has ever owned. In addition to carrying 334 passengers, the plane has greater cargo capacity: it can carry 30 tons more than the A330, the largest model the company had so far.

“This plane is able to carry 36 more passengers and 30 tons more cargo, consuming the same amount of fuel as the A330”, says Abih Shah, Vice President of Revenue at Azul. “You can generate more revenue by burning less fuel.”

“If you eat sushi in Miami, tuna comes from Brazil, on our planes. If you eat mango in the south of France, it comes from our flights to Lisbon. Brazil exports a lot, and that helps international flights”, says John Rodgerson , president of Azul.

The new plane can carry 50 tons of cargo, but the capacity varies according to several factors, such as the condition of the runway at the time of takeoff. From this total, it is necessary to remove the weight of passengers’ luggage, which frees up an average of 14 tons for goods and products.

The A350 is the largest ever adopted by Azul. It has space for 334 passengers, 301 in economy class and 33 in executive class. The seats have entertainment options with 16-inch screens.

The first flight left Viracopos, in SP, for Orlando, in the United States, this Tuesday morning, after a launch ceremony. The plane was greeted with jets of water — for reuse — before taking off.

Azul will have four A350s in its fleet, two of which have already been delivered and two more to arrive in 2023. The aircraft were previously used by a company in Hong Kong and underwent overhauls in France before being sent to Brazil.

The company celebrates its 14th anniversary on this 15th. The company currently serves 158 destinations, five of which are international: Orlando, Fort Lauderdale (USA), Montevideo and Punta del Este (Uruguay) and Lisbon (Portugal).

The company’s expectation is to close 2022 with 27.6 million passengers, a number close to the total taken in the pre-pandemic.

In recent years, Azul has focused on expanding routes to the interior of the country. In December, for example, routes were inaugurated to the mining towns of Patos de Minas, Teófilo Otoni, Varginha and Paracatu.

For 2023, Azul has plans to launch a new international destination, yet to be revealed. The company has partnerships with the American companies JetBlue and United, for flights to other destinations in the USA, and with TAP and Air Europa, to connect Lisbon to other European capitals.

“Unemployment is falling. Inflation is lower than in the United States and Europe. With the new flexibility of work, in which you can spend fewer days in the office, there are many people going to Bahia, Recife, Manaus”, says Rodgerson .

The airline industry is still trying to recover losses from the pandemic. In Latin America, companies should have a combined loss of US$ 2 billion (R$ 10.5 billion) in 2022 and lose another US$ 795 million (R$ 4.1 billion) in 2023, predicts IATA (International Association Air Transport).