Brazilian carrier Azul Linhas Aéreas appears set to retire its fleet of Airbus A350-900 jets only a year after receiving them. The aircraft type has been removed from the schedule, with the Brazilian press reporting that operating expenses were much higher than anticipated.
Report: Azul Prepares To Retire A350-900 Fleet…Less Than A Year After Taking Delivery Of Aircraft
Azul was supposed to take delivery of its first A350 jet in 2017, but the first aircraft was not delivered until late 2022. The Brazilian budget carrier had ordered five A350s, but cancelled the order in 2017. Those jets went to Cathay Pacific instead. But after a year of civil unrest in Hong Kong followed by the pandemic, Cathay Pacific grounded much of its fleet, including these A350s.
Two were transferred back to a storage facility in France, where they sat for two years until Azul decided to reincorporate the A350 in 2022.
The first A350-900 debuted in September 20022 and the second one three months later. Sine then, the “flagship” A350 has served routes from Campinas (VCP) outside São Paulo including:
- Lisbon (LIS)
- Orlando (MCO)
- Paris (ORY)
(the other three A350s originally ordered were sent to Hainan, who later sold them to Iberia)
Per Airways Mag, which bases its information on widespread reporting in the Brazilian media, Azul finds the cost structure of operating the A350 too high:
Azul sees the A350 as an airplane with very high maintenance and operational cost, even though it has some of the best fuel burn performances in the industry.
As a result–while not yet officially announced–Azul will exclusively stick to its Airbus A330 family of aircraft for longhaul operations. That includes four A330-200s and five A330-900neos. I‘ve reviewed the A330-900neo in business class during the pandemic and enjoyed a lovely flight.
> Read More: Azul Airlines A330-900neo Business Class
The A350 has now been pulled from the schedule beyond October 28, 2023.
CONCLUSION
Less than a year after launching A350 operations, Azul appears ready to retire its two A350 aircraft. While the high cost of having a dedicated pilot and maintenance team for this aircraft is understandable, the A350 is one of my favorite aircraft and I am quite sorry to see it depart the Azul fleet.
image: Azul A330-900neo, which will again become the flagship of the Azul longhaul fleet
It would make sense if DL bought these birds from them since DL has more designated A350 routes than they do A350s. For example, DTW-AMS is still designated as a “flagship route” but they only fly their old A330s because they have less planes with the newer D1 suites than they do for these “flagship” routes.
My thoughts too! I bet Delta has already made a deal!
Frequent flyers on the same wavelength haha
You are kind right on this. They do have one DTW-AMS frequency that is operated by their flagship A350 (DL132/DL133). Just wanted to point this out. You are correct though that they need many. more especially for claiming this route as a “flagship route.” Their current A330 Delta one cabins are comfortable for only sleeping, but lack privacy, work space, and are looking worn and dated now.
David Neeleman knows a thing or two about controlling costs, so I don’t question the decision. Still, before folks use this to impugn the A350 across the board, it’s important to remember this is a situation involving a low cost carrier with a small long haul fleet and even smaller subfleet of A350’s. It makes sense to stick with the A330 platform and to eventually replace aging a330ceos with the neos.
Just did a round trip MSP-CDG-MSP on Delta’s A350-900 on Delta One. What a treat!! Plane is awesome, quiet and the suites with doors have a lot of space. Slept like a baby. Hope Delta adds the same planes on other international routes out of MSP.
That’s true but bear in mind the communication that has been put out. Azul isn’t announcing that they are retiring their small A350 subfleet because “despite its excellent economics the costs of operating s small subfleet of aircraft have made our A350 operation uneconomical” (and that’s a made up quote for illustrative purposes) as one might expect.
Instead, we get “Azul sees the A350 as an airplane with very high maintenance and operational cost, even though it has some of the best fuel burn performances in the industry.” That says to me that while fuel burn was very good the aircraft was very expensive to maintain on top of the unique costs of running a small subfleet and owning a more expensive aircraft. It also says to me that Azul at least going forward seems to feel their A330 fleet will on the whole deliver better economics than the 350 could. That doesn’t mean of course that the 350 is a bad airplane. But at least on Azul’s route network it looks like the maintenance and ownership costs aren’t offset by its fuel burn advantage.
What does this mean for the 350? It seems to be more expensive to maintain than the 330 and 330NEO. Its more expensive to buy upfront which impacts overall cost of ownership and operation. The big negative for the 350 here is that its operational economics, which are excellent, can’t always offset the former two. Which means Airbus may find it difficult to sell more of its more expensive and presumably more profitable aircraft since at least for some operators the 330NEO offers better value. That sort of sales cannibalization by the low margin product in your portfolio from high margin product is exactly what most manufacturers seek to avoid.
That’s not actually Azul’s statement though. That’s the non-native English of the AirwaysMag writer recapping reports in the Brazilian press. Azul themselves haven’t made an official statement.
I’m sure economy of scale was a major factor. With only two A350 and corresponding maintenance, crew training, etc. It just doesn’t make economic sense for such a small segment in a fleet.
With eight active A330s (CEO & NEO), training may be near identical, same with major parts and maintenance.
I would image the two airframes will be snapped up like Delta did with LATAM.
Campinas is “outside” Sao Paulo the same way that Philadelphia is “outside” New York. Campinas is a 1.5 hour drive without traffic to downtown Sao Paulo, and it would take 2 hours much of the day.
Never understood why Azul dropped plans for Newark/JFK, which generally has much higher average fares to Brazil than Florida.
Considering how bad the traffic is to get to GRU sometimes, I’m not sure I agree.
They were renegotiating leasing for their entire fleet, don’t think they got a discount on a350, so that’s what they call expensive operating costs..
However they were actually successful with the rest… Got out of big financial trouble.
Brazil has terrible business environment and huge taxes, plus the most expensive aviation fuel in the world, is very hard to airplane stay afloat.
Correcting to airlines stay afloat….
I thought the A330 and the A350 have a common type rating. If that’s so, incorporating the A350 into its fleet should be pretty easy for Azul, as they would only need one set of pilots, engineers etc. for their entire long-haul fleet. Sounds more like a too-big-to-fill case to me.
A good analogy for comparing the A330 family against the A350 would be comparing the 787 against the 777 and 777x. Basics are tbe same, but there are nuances that differentiate two families from each other.
This is true, but for the B777 and B787, for instance, the FAA calls them two different types and requires two different, albeit similar, ratings, whereas EASA calls it one type rating but requires documentation of conversion training. With the A330 and A350, both the FAA and EASA share a type rating, but both agencies require conversion training.
Of course, I can’t begin to speak to how Brazil’s aviation authorities treat them.