Photo: Airbus.
Brazil’s Civil Aviation National Agency (ANAC) has recently released the first quarter traffic results. And it is time to take a look at how the South American giant is currently going. Last week, we published Mexico’s results; now, let’s start looking at Brazil’s civil aviation 1Q results in 2023.
How many passengers did it receive?
According to ANAC numbers, Brazil received 27.28 million passengers in the first three months of the year. In this period, Brazil remained the second-largest Latin American country behind Mexico, with 29.03 million passengers.
Brazil has not yet fully recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic (unlike Mexico). In the first quarter, it recovered about 90% of 2019 traffic levels, according to data from ANAC. On the other hand, Mexico has been well above pre-pandemic traffic levels since last year.
In this period, LATAM Brazil has remained the top airline in the country, carrying about 8.29 million passengers and holding a 32.1% market share. GOL Linhas Aéreas has moved 7.87 million passengers, and Azul Linhas Aéreas recorded 7.21 million passengers. These last two airlines held 28.2% and 26.1% market shares, respectively.
A look at the average fares
The average domestic fare in Brazil had a 10% increase in February 2023 versus the previous year, according to ANAC’s data. On average, a domestic ticket had a cost of around 572.12 reais in February, with Azul posting the highest fare at about 676 reais ($135) and GOL the cheapest fare at 519 reais ($104).
Compared to January 2020, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, domestic fares have increased by 26%.
Internationally, the average fare for traveling in and out of Brazil is a whopping $781.44 (about 3,900 reais on average). Flying in economy is not that much cheap, with the average being $624.76.
The average international fare for LATAM, Azul, and GOL are $917.60, $792.39, and $434.33, respectively. These three airlines operate about 308 weekly international flights as of May 2023, with LATAM Brazil operating 160 of them, GOL operating 91, and Azul operating 57. They offer, on average, 232.6 seats per departure.
As of May 3, 2023, only one of Brazil’s top three airlines has published their first quarter financial results.
GOL Linhas Aéreas had a record net operating revenue of 4.9 billion reais, 52.8% higher than last year’s first quarter and 4.1% above 2022’s fourth quarter. The airline also had a net income of 620 million reais (about $125 million). Celso Ferrer, the company’s CEO, said,
“2023 is off to a strong start. During the quarter, we delivered another sequential increase in our operating performance. We continue to add supply and with our discipline approach to costs, further drive higher levels of productivity. In January, we reached operating fleet utilization levels above 12 hours a day, a level last seen in 2019.”
The airline expects to increase its annual average utilization and strengthen its low-cost operating model with its Boeing 737 standardized fleet throughout the rest of the year.
