Azul announced on Monday that they have suspended all international flights, except flights leaving Campinas, from March 16, 2020. The carrier will further reduce capacity 20-25% in March and by 35-50% in April.
Yesterday (March 16, 2020), São Paulo, Brazil-based carrier Azul announced the suspension of all international flights, except flights departing from Campinas. Additionally, the carrier will reduce consolidated capacity by 20-25% in March and by between 35-50% in April, which will continue until demand returns. Azul is also taking additional measures to reduce fixed costs including a 25% Executive Management Team pay cut, a hiring freeze, payment deferral of 2019 profit sharing, voluntary unpaid leave, suspension of travel and discretionary spending, grounding of aircraft and suspending all new aircraft deliveries. In Monday’s announcement, Azul’s CEO, John Rodgerson said,
“While our top priority remains the health and safety of our crewmembers and customers, we continue to focus on adjusting capacity to demand and preserving our cash position during this challenging time. We ended 2019 as one of the most profitable airlines in the world. Our strong liquidity position, combined with the expertise and dedication of our team give me confidence that we will come out of this crisis a lot stronger as an airline.”
At the end of 2019, Azul had R$2.8 billion in cash, cash equivalents and receivables and held deposits and maintenance reserves totaling R$1.7 billion, as well as long term investments totaling R$1.4 billion. Azul is largest airline in Brazil, based on the number of departures and cities served. The carrier offers 916 daily departures to 116 destinations and operates a fleet of 142 aircraft. Azul employs more than 12,000 and has a network of 249 nonstop routes (as of December 31, 2019).
Source: Azul
Editor's Note: We stand by the entire Azul team and all airlines during this difficult period as the entire world fights to limit the transmission of, and ultimately recover from, the global COVID-19 pandemic. Once it has been defeated, we look forward to the emergence of an even stronger and more robust global commercial airline industry.