For my holiday to Brazil in April 2022 I put together a rather complex itinerary which involved several domestic flights. I checked Google Flights to see which airlines operated the routes I wanted, then went to the airlines’ websites to find out more.  Brazil has three main domestic carriers; LATAM, GOL and Azul, each “low cost carriers” and of those three Azul caught my attention for its schedules, price and feedback in online reviews I read, so I booked my flights through their website.  Because air traffic hasn’t yet returned to pre-pandemic levels I found that I had to change planes at an intermediate stop on both the journeys I booked, from Rio to Iguassu Falls and from Iguassu to Campo Grande.  Both stops were in Campinas (“VCP” because its full name is Campinas Viracopos), a place I’d never heard of, but which turned out to be very near Sao Paolo. In fact Azul sells it as ‘Sao Paolo’ in much the same way that Ryanair et al call Stansted ‘London’.  But unusually, my ticket confirmation only gave me the flight numbers of the first flights from each originating airport, and didn’t mention the flight numbers of the connecting flights.  So when arranging airport pick-ups I just told them the airline, scheduled time of arrival and that I was coming from Campinas, and everything went to plan.  During the booking process I was able to select seats at the front of the plane, at a fee, which gave me a little more legroom and the convenience of boarding and disembarking first.

Azul has a large fleet of Brazilian built Embraer 195s, which I think are super little jets. Their (all economy) seating is arranged 2-2 which makes travelling with a partner more private when there’s not a third person in the seat row, and, I think, gives a better feeling of space.  But Azul also has a lot of Airbus A320s, which have a 3-3 layout and on one of our sectors the E195 was substituted for an Airbus, which felt a lot more cramped, despite it being a larger aircraft.

Our first flight was out of Rio’s Santos Dumont (“SDU”) airport, which is close to the city’s central business district.  It was the weekend, so there were no traffic jams heading for the ‘downtown’ airport.  Check in went OK, despite none of the airline staff speaking English, and then Mr A grabbed a wheelchair to push me through security, which was different to what I’m used to because we didn’t have to take out  laptops or liquids.  Azul don’t have any business lounges, because they don’t fly a business class, and Priority Pass didn’t have one either, so we just waited by the departure gate for our 10:50 scheduled departure of flight AD4042.

We boarded a 7 year old E195, registered PR-AUF, at 10:20.  As we entered the cabin, cabin crew handed out antiseptic wipes, and I was delighted with our third row seats in a cream leather. It really was very comfortable.  Only one thing perturbed me; all of the window blinds were closed. I assumed this was just to keep the plane cool in the sunshine, and they would tell pax to open them for take-off. But they didn’t, on this or any of our subsequent Brazilian domestic flights.  This (safety) issue is a particular bee in my bonnet; a few years back I wrote to BA and the Civil Aviation Authority to complain that BA didn’t ask pax to open blinds for take-off and landing, at a time when other nations were telling their pax to do so for safety reasons.  Both dismissed me at the time, but following a fire on a BA Boeing 777 at Las Vegas BA changed its position on the matter.  The issue is that if there were to be an engine failure and fire, passengers need to be able to see which wing has a fire, so they can evacuate from the other side. In the Las Vegas incident, attending firemen noted that because blinds were closed they couldn’t see if and where there was a fire inside the aircraft cabin, and that’s what forced BA to fall into line with most other airlines.  So it’s a risky decision for Brazilian authorities not to follow best practice guidelines.

There is zero inflight service on Azul’s domestic operations, except they will give you a plastic glass of water if asked. Our uneventful first flight left SDU 12 minutes early, but we arrived at VCP ten minutes late, at 12:10, and I was famished. So I succumbed to a burger from Bitte Burger, which was actually pretty good.  But once again in Brazil, no-one spoke English, so ordering my meal and drinks was quite challenging.

The 2nd flight that day was flight AD4780 from VCP to Foz do Iguazu (“IGU”) in Brazil. The Iguazu Falls area and river forms the border between Brazil and Argentina, and on the Argentine side is another airport called Puerto Iguazu International Airport (“IGR”), and just up river is Paraguay with its own airport.  Our flight to the Brazilian IGU was on a 12 year old E195 registered PR-AYL.  This flight left 15 minutes early and landed at IGU 10 minutes early, after just 1 hour 20 minutes in the air.

Three days later, on 12th April 2022 we flew our next sector with Azul, from IGU back to VCP, and this time it was on a 1 year old Airbus A320neo.  But as I noted above, with its 3-3 seat layout the newer Airbus was not as spacious or comfortable as the E195.  Even the front seats I’d reserved didn’t have the extra legroom.

But before the flight we made use of the Advantage Lounge, through my Priority Pass membership. It was a decent size, and had a range of comfortable chairs, but it offered limited food and drinks.  Once again this flight left 5 minutes early and was on stand at VCP 5 minutes early too at 12:30.  But on this flight I had more concerns about safety procedures. I had to argue with an attendant to get the man in the aisle seat next to Mr A to stow his hand baggage properly because it would have tripped me up in an evacuation. There was only one safety instruction card per row of 3 seats, the man in front of me had his laptop open and earphones in during take-off, and several window blinds remained closed.

Our final flight with Azul was AD4877 from VCP to Campo Grande (“CGR”) in the neighbouring state of Mato Grosso do Sul, which is in a time zone one hour behind Parana and Rio (which we only discovered en route).  We boarded another E195, this time 7year old PR-AUH, at 12:55, just 25 minutes after we got off the last flight!  I was very concerned that our bags wouldn’t make the connection, so I tried to ask the cabin crew if they could confirm the bags were on board. This proved to be impossible because they didn’t speak English, but then I saw the plane’s captain, so I asked him. He spoke to the aircraft dispatcher who said they were on board, without actually checking his computer or paperwork, so I was still very sceptical.

But I tried to relax and ‘go with the flow’ and sat in my comfortable and spacious seat on the E195.  As well as the extra space, the E195 is quieter than the A320neo and it has larger windows to look out of.  The problem with this flight though was some uncontrolled children in front of me!  This was the only flight of four which left late (by 3 minutes) and arrived on stand at CGR 3 minutes late.  And our bags had made it!!

Overall I was pretty satisfied with Azul.  These four sectors cost me just €434 for two people, including seat selection, and I loved the comfort of the E195.  My safety concerns were down to Brazilian regulations, not Azul ignoring the rules, and it was also down to Brazilian authorities that there was no onboard service (a Covid related measure).  With the lack of service it’s hard to comment on the friendliness of the cabin crew, but their lack of English was frustrating.  Flight punctuality was superb and their baggage transfer system at VCP is very impressive.  Azul now operates long haul international services to the US and to Lisbon and Paris in Europe, using A300 aircraft, but I’m not too sure if I would want to fly with them unless I knew they were going to give out food, and follow European safety rules.  8/10