The Brazilian aviation industry has recovered 75% of its pre-pandemic traffic levels
After more than two years of the COVID-19 impact, the Brazilian aviation industry has recovered approximately 75% of its pre-pandemic traffic levels, led by LATAM Brazil. Domestically, the country is bouncing back stronger, while the international market has lagged behind. Let’s dive into the numbers.
According to data released by Brazil’s Civil Aviation National Agency (ANAC), the country has seen 29.8 million travelers in 2022. If we compare this number to the 39.8 million travelers the country had between January and April 2019, Brazil has made a 75% recovery.
Domestically, Brazil has had 25.6 million travelers (versus 31.4 million in 2019, an 81.5% recovery).
Meanwhile, Brazil has had 4.2 million travelers internationally, with not a single carrier surpassing the one-million-traveler mark. Brazil has recovered exactly 50% of its pre-pandemic international traffic levels, signaling a slow rebound of this segment.
LATAM is leading the way
So far, LATAM Airlines has been the leader in terms of traffic in the Brazilian market. It has carried 9.24 million passengers so far, holding a 30.97% market share.
Behind LATAM, we can find GOL, which has carried 8.67 million passengers and holding on to a 29.05% market share, and Azul, with 8.48 million travelers and a 28.42% share.
Most of the travelers have come from the domestic market. Internationally, LATAM has carried 648,999 travelers, holding a 15.45% share. Neither Azul nor GOL crack the top 5 of international operators in Brazil. Instead, the airlines that have carried the most international travelers behind LATAM are TAP Air Portugal, American Airlines, Copa Airlines, and LATAM Chile.
Azul has carried 189,045 international travelers (a 4.50% market share) and GOL 160,102 (3.81%).
Aline Mafra, LATAM Brazil’s director of Sales and Marketing, recently explained the terrific results by LATAM so far,
“Leisure tourism, mainly to destinations in the Brazilian northeast, has already been recovering with the progress of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign and the easing of sanitary restrictions. Recently, the business segment has also started to demand more flights. For this reason, we have sequentially expanded operations on the São Paulo-Rio de Janeiro route and other services capable of connecting more people to more destinations in our hubs.”
What can we expect going forward?
LATAM is ready to cope with the high demand in July, the airline claimed in a statement.
The carrier has scheduled nearly 3,000 domestic and international flights for next month. The increase in take-offs aims to meet the growing demand for domestic and international travel in Brazil at a time of resumption of leisure tourism and school holidays.
The main increases in the domestic market are in flights to the Brazilian northeast from São Paulo (Guarulhos and Congonhas), Rio de Janeiro (Santos Dumont), Brasília, and Fortaleza. In the international market from Brazil, the company will expand its flights to Santiago, Buenos Aires, Miami, and Orlando.
In addition to increasing the frequency of weekly flights on some routes during July, LATAM will also resume routes that were temporarily suspended, such as the direct flights between Porto Alegre and Lima and Fortaleza-Miami, and will give continuity to the debuts planned and maintained for 2022. Next month, the company will launch five new destinations abroad and at home: Rome, Montes Claros, Cascavel, Caxias do Sul, and Juiz de Fora. With these debuts, the company will reach the mark of 54 domestic destinations and 20 destinations abroad on flights departing from Brazil. simpleflying.com