Azul turns 1 year old and has posted some pretty impressive numbers.  According to THIS Wall Street Journal story, Azul has managed to carry over 2 million people in its first year of operation. 

Flying with a fleet of 14 Embraer E190/E195 jets with a 106 and 118 seats respectively, Azul plans to grow their fleet considerably ending up with a fleet of 33 aircraft by 2011.  Azul was, to date, the best financed airline venture yet at $200 million in start up capital and is an excellent example of how to start an airline properly. 

Owned and controlled by David Neeleman, former founder of Morris Air and jetBlue (and who also assisted in the founding of WestJet in Canada), Azul shows great promise for stimulating air travel demand in Brazil. 

Ordinarily, I’m not too keen to talk about completely foreign airlines but this is one I like to watch because I have a feeling that Mr. Neeleman will come back to the US again one day and start yet another airline.  I presume he presently has a non-compete clause in force between himself and jetBlue but I wouldn’t be surprised to learn he’s already looking at a map of the United States and making plans with himself for the future.

Filed under: Airline News by ajax
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