As Brazilian low-cost carrier Azul Airlines expands its services, Sao Paulo Guarulhos airport is accommodating the airline and its future plans. According to CAPA's Blue Swan Daily, Campinas Viracopos airport in Sao Paulo state actually remains the largest base for the discount carrier. However, Sao Paulo Guarulhos, just a 1-2 hour drive away, will be refreshing and upgrading its terminal one in order to support Azul’s growing presence at that airport.

Azul E2 delivery
The E2 is ideal for longer haul flights. Photo: Embraer

According to data gathered from CAPA, Guarulhos is Azul’s third-largest terminal. This is based on seat deployment numbers and represents approximately 8% of the airline’s total system seats. Also based at Guarulhos airport are LATAM Airlines Brazil and GOL. These two airlines are the airport’s largest and second-largest airlines respectively.

Blue Swan Daily also reports that the airline is doubling its operations at Guarulhos. In fact, the airport's head of airline business Joao Pita says that Azul has almost 60 departures a day “and some days even more”.

An aerial view of Sao Paolo's Guarulhos airport. Photo: Portal da Copa via Wikipedia

The upgrade plans

As Azul is the only airline using terminal one at Guarulhos, Joao Pita also says that his airport is “doing some work there to improve the passenger experience”. This includes a new food court utilizing the mezzanine space, as well as a new apron accommodating as many as six widebody aircraft.

Azul
Azul flies to Florida in the US. Photo: Azul Airlines

Azul airlines

According to information available on Wikipedia, Azul Linhas Aéreas Brasileiras S.A. is the fourth airline launched by JetBlue founder David Neeleman. Before Azul, he had launched the airlines Morris Air, WestJet and JetBlue (which explains the name Azul as the word is Portuguese for the color blue).

Starting services in 2008, the airline began by serving three cities: Campinas, Salvador, and Porto Alegre. Now, nine years later, the airline has a fleet of over 130 aircraft. According to Airfleets, the fleet is composed of over 30 Airbus A320s as well as nine A330s. For shorter and lower-demand flights, the airline's fleet of ATR 72s and Embraer 190/195s carry passengers. The airline is also listed as having two older Boeing 737-400s.

According to the airline's website, it has already garnered some fairly impressive accomplishments based on Trip Advisor reviewers' opinions. This includes the titles of:

  • Best Airline in Latin America
  • Best Economy Class in Latin America
  • Top 10 Airline Worldwide
  • Best Low-Cost Airline in Latin America
  • Best Airline in Brazil
  • The Best Business Class in Latin America

Conclusion

It's an exciting time for Azul as it continues to expand and become one of the largest low-cost carriers in South America. Have you ever flown this airline before? Let us know what your experience was like by leaving a comment!

We reached out to Azul for a statement. However, the airline has not responded to our comment at the time of this article going live. We will update this post if we receive any word from Azul.