Hi everyone!
My father and my stepmother had to go to Belo Horizonte for work. Instead of staying alone in São Paulo I decided to go with them to discover Belo Horizonte. Azul was the cheapest and I already know TAM, Gol and Avianca Brasil, so it was a good deal.
The downside of Azul is that they fly from Campinas, which is about 1h30 from São Paulo. However there are buses going from various places across São Paulo to Campinas airport. You just need to show your booking confirmation to get in.
My father was flying at the same time as me but from Congonhas and with TAM so we went together to the airport, me for the bus and him for his flight.
Here’s the bus
It has air conditioning, toilettes in the back, free wifi and large reclined seats. It was pretty confortable.
I arrived in Campinas at 9:35, completely stressed out because my flight was boarding in 15mn and I wasn’t checked in.
After rushing to the check in area I quickly got my boarding pass. Actually it’s more of a receipt than a boarding pass. There’s 2 parts, the lower one for the gate agents and the upper one for you.
I got quickly through security where there is no need to remove your jacket, your belt or your shoes.
Airside there is only a few boarding gates going from A to M and most of them requires a boarding by bus.
Sadly it is not possible to do some spotting from here
We were supposed to leave from gate D but at the last minute an announcement has been done and we left from gate J. At least, since it’s a small airport, it’s fast to get from one gate to another.
For your information nobody speaks English here.
We got into another building, which is just across a road, with numbered gates. There are fewer gates than before because it’s only for the lucky ones who are going to walk to the plane instead of the bus ride.
It’s much easier from here to spot something like this Breast Cancer special livery. Azul is the king of special liveries; they’re so few airplanes wearing the regular one.
Shortly after, we were invited to board and it was the first and only time they checked my ID.
The plane is an E-195, as planned, PR-AYD, 5 years old, called Amigo Azul William Rodrigues. I was almost disappointed to get a regular livery
Our neighbor has a sticker
Since I was seat 25A, I entered the aircraft from the back
A Trip ATR42
And Wow! The cabin seems really nice! It is equipped with PTV.
The TVs are big, there’s the geolocalisation and a large choice of TV channels. There’s no need to pay to access the programs.
Pitch is good. Seat is comfortable.
The little command to control the IFE
Headphones are distributed
Here are the TV channels available and the coverage
Note that on the Azul livery there is a little colored strip between the dark blue and the white. Each plane has a different color, which makes them even more unique.
An intruder in Campinas
We reached the runway and took off on time. Every announcement is in Portuguese. I haven’t heard any English during this trip.
Around Campinas
The city of Campinas
The catering is verbally announced and is free of charge. There is no trolley, just FAs going around asking what you would like to drink and coming back with it on a tray. The other FAs are handing snacks from a basket.
To drink there is peach or orange juice, sodas, coffee, tea, coconut water and water. Regarding snacks, you can take as much as you want so I took one of each.
A Gol 737
We are slowly approaching Belo Horizonte’s area
We approached CNF from the north. The airport is located in-between Belo Horizonte and Riberão das Neves
Each rectangle that forms the logo represents a Brazilian state
Approaching
The city of Sete Lagoas
Final approach
We landed on time
At the time of this flight they were working to improve the airport for the 2014 Fifa World Cup
767 American Airlines from Miami
TAM, Gol and Trip
Gol taking off
We disembarked by bus. The plane is here in transit. The flight continues to São Luis, Teresina and Fortaleza
And here I am, in Belo Horizonte!
Thank you for this report.
It seems that all airlines operating domestically in Brazil use the receipt as boarding pass. I once took a TAM flight from CGH to CNF. Perhaps it is more economical and environmentally friendly, but horrible for boarding pass collectors.
AD inflight service is almost exactly like B6. After all, they both share the same founder - Mr. Neeleman.
@Momo - I really want to see a report on Azul long-haul too! You should work on that on your next trip to see your dad in Brazil :-)
@Jetsetpanda - I doubt Azul would ever join an alliance (never say never, but it's unlikely). I think like B6, they are just being codeshare wh*res :-P
That should be interesting with widebodies coming to their fleet. B6 took a risky gamble by implementing its MINT F cabin and people rave about it now. Having a premium cabin seems contradicting to a LCC carrier, but Brazil is a rich country and is part of the BRIC group. Now that TAM is part of Oneworld, UA has made AD a partner starting March 2015. I wonder if eventually AD will join *A to feed the Brazilian market, because it seems to be a more lucrative partner than AV there.
@jetsetpanda - Hehe, codeshare p*mp, I like that!
Seems like airlines these days are more inclined to stay independant and form their own partnerships so as to not be constrained to one alliance. Even the nature of alliances seems to be changing as more and more carriers are creating strong partnerships and joint ventures outside their alliances...e.g. Delta and Virgin Atlantic, Qantas and Emirates, Etihad and everyone, LOL
The clock is turning back. Things seem to be going the way they were before alliances. Sometimes I don't think alliances are all that they are cracked up to be. Let's face it, some alliances are smoother than others.
For example, when I took my SK flight in SK+ , I originally credited that trip to TK. Guess what? after two attempts to contact TK about that, and both times they were refused with no explanation (this was a straight A fare which should have been given bonus miles on top), I gave up and was able to credit it to UA online in a short time. TK only credited GOT-ARN, but not ARN-NCE. Go figure.
AD really looks like a legacy. Their ambition is to become Brazil's flag carrier. The new business is lie-flat, in 1-2-1. A350 are coming in 2017 and they should start flights to Europe with them. I can't wait.
If I remember well TAP has been the earliest partner of Azul. Star Alliance is creating strong bonds with AD like Skyteam with GOL. Etihad also started to share codes with Azul. I think they'll stay independent but we never know.
I think they all use the receipt in Brasil and I really don't like it.
I don't know B6 but with the different reports on the website it seems similar. What I really would like to know is Azul's product on long-haul flights from FLL and MCO, especially with the new cabins coming.
Thank you :)
@KevinDC - a codeshare wh*re? lol - more like a codeshare p*mp. ;)
They do have flights between SP and BH. They have a base in Guarulhos and Belo Horizonte Confins in addition to VCP.
They fly from CGH to CNF, from GRU to CNF and PLU (both airport of Belo Horizonte) and from VCP to CNF and PLU.
We booked the flight one week before and going from VCP was cheaper, allowed me to come back on TRIP from PLU and I wasn't sure about the buses from Sao Paulo to Guarulhos.
I would like to fly with them long-haul but it's pretty expensive, about 950eu round trip from FLL and even more expensive from MCO. What is surprising is the price difference from Y to J, it's more or less 100eu. However, they do use their 330 on the Campinas - Recife route. That could be interesting.
Thanks :)
I think you should be the first one to report on the new A330 service, even for such a short haul domestic trip to give us an exclusive on the new widebody cabins. ;)
Oh wow, I didn't kow they were so expensive from Florida to Brazil. I'm surprised to hear that considering how well served the Florida-Brazil market is with the AA hub at MIA and the large presence of LATAM group in Florida to South America. Based on those kinds of fares it seems that Azul was smart by chosing MCO and FLL as gateways since they have less direct competition from those airports.
I really hope Azul's long-haul service works out and inspires more LCC to try their hand at long-haul. I know long-haul LCC have never really worked in the past so Azul's success story could be a (hybrid) model on how to do it correctly. WestJet is gettin widebodies this year I believe, which is really cool. I would love to see JetBlue with widebodies, and now that they've had so much succees with their transcon A321s, it could be a stepping stone to Long-haul widebody service. Southwest, on the other hand, I can't ever see with widebodies. It would be too much of a radical departure from their business model. And if Spirit ever got widebodies, we'd see them invent 3-4-3 configuration with 28 pitch on A330s, LOL.
I would love to be able to be the 1st one reporting Azul's 330. I'll try next time I go to Brasil to motivate people to visit Recife but it won't be easy :p
TAM is so big on the Brasil - Florida market. Now that they are part of OneWorld it's even more crazy. On Miami, they have 3 direct flights from Sao Paulo GRU per day, in addition to the 4x daily from American Airlines. And then MIA has flights to Brasilia, Belem, Belo Horizonte, Manaus, Fortaleza, Curitiba, Rio de Janeiro, Campinas (with GOL and AA), Salvador, and Recife. MIA was definitely the airport to avoid for Azul. For Orlando, TAM has only 12 flights from Sao Paulo per week and in june they're starting a daily Brasilia - Orlando.
Btw, starting in March, you'll have TAM doing JFK-YYZ on their 767. Could be more interesting than the CRJ of Delta or the Ejet of United.
I hope it works out too for Azul, I would love to see their beautiful planes flying to Europe. It's really a great airline and I hope they won't fail like Air Asia X with their flights to London and Paris.