With minimal government assistance, South American airlines faced a pandemic-era crisis, arguably more severe than in other regions.
LATAM Airlines, a powerful international competitor for decades and by far the largest airline in the region, was forced into bankruptcy. The same happened to Avianca, which reduced its capacity within South America at almost twice the rate of LATAM. Brazil’s Gol, which was on the verge of bankruptcy, reduced its capacity at a similar rate to Avianca.
→ LATAM makes progress and will be able to begin voting on its Reorganization Plan.
One airline in particular is taking advantage of all the turmoil. Brazil-based Azul is bigger now than it was before the pandemic. More importantly, Azul has already returned to strong profits, posting an impressive 14% operating margin during the fourth quarter of 2021.
However, Azul is not the only South American airline that has grown since the start of COVID-19. The same is true of several low-cost carriers looking to take advantage of large capacity cuts at LATAM, Gol and Avianca. Viva, Sky Airline and JetSMART fall into this category.
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