Brazil aviation: airlines expand international & domestic capacity

Brazil's three largest airlines are forecast to grow their domestic capacity in 2018 at varying degrees as demand in the country appears to be on a stable upswing, after plummeting during the country's recession that began in 2015.

Azul, GOL and LATAM Airlines Brazil believe the country's domestic market is in a period of stabilisation, with corporate demand finally starting to rebound. Azul and GOL both posted healthy increases in ticket prices at the end of 2017, which reflects a level of pricing traction in the market.

All three of those airlines are also expanding international capacity from Brazil this year: LATAM will add service to Rome, Las Vegas and Boston, and GOL is inaugurating service from Fortaleza and Brasília to Miami and Orlando, using Boeing 737 MAX narrowbodies. Late in 2017 Azul added new service to the US that will mature over the course of 2018.

As those airlines bolster service to the US, American Airlines, which is the largest operator between the US and Brazil, is cutting service between the two countries.