Azul Brazilian Airlines has signed a purchase
agreement with Airbus for 35 A320neo family aircraft.
The airline,
which is also leasing another 28 A320neo aircraft, has chosen the
A320neo family to carry out domestic long haul flights and high
density routes, including Campinas – Salvador and Campinas –
Recife.
Azul has selected CFM engines for their A320neo fleet.
“Azul is an airline that truly serves all of
Brazil. With more than 100 destinations, Azul will soon offer
even more seats on our longer haul flights, allowing us to reduce
operating costs,” said David Neeleman, CEO and Founder of Azul.
“In addition to its market leading economics, which will allow
Azul to stimulate new demand, the A320neo is also a perfect
complement to our E-Jet fleet, giving us additional seats and
capacity that can be dedicated to strategic projects like TudoAzul,
Azul Viagens and Azul Cargo.”
In April, Azul announced that it
would start operating long haul flights by early December. The
airline expects to fly new international routes with a fleet of 12
leased wide body Airbus aircraft, including seven Airbus A330-200
and later five Airbus A350-900 equipped with Rolls-Royce engines.
Airbus
has obtained regulatory approval for training of A350
XWB airline pilots in accordance with the original goal of an
A330/A350 “Common Type Rating” (CTR). This will enable Azul pilots to benefit from reduced training time in the transition from one
Airbus jetliner model to another, resulting in significant
benefits for airline profitability, pilot productivity and
scheduling flexibility.
Azul,
Brazil,
Airbus
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