Many people who travel to Orlando or Fort Lauderdale with Azul has had an unpleasant surprise, boarding a plane without business class, with much less space and without any entertainment screen. Faced with all the negative repercussions of the arrival of two new aircraft, the airline decided to act and from July 31st it will take one of these models out of operation, reactivating its own plane that was stopped but which has all the standards already known to Azul.
The company claims that it has suffered in recent months from a problem that affects global aviation: the lack of aircraft and spare parts. With planes stopped for maintenance, mainly on engines, Azul even suspended operations for a few months on routes connecting the airports of Belo Horizonte It is Recife to Florida (already resumed).
In order not to see the problem worsen, the airline acquired two A330neo aircraft from low cost AirAsia, which arrived with a completely different configuration to what passengers are already familiar with. There are many more seats on the plane (377 seats overall, compared to 298 on its other A330neo) and no business class – in its place, there is a different class, with just 12 seats, which was called Economy Prime. With one detail: none of the classes have an entertainment screen, despite being more modern aircraft. The 365-seat economy class is in a 3x3x3 configuration, which is quite cramped and one of the biggest complaints from passengers.
Photo of the economy class of an AirAsia A330. Credit: Zach Honig/The Points Guy
These two AirAsia A330neo planes were soon placed on the routes that Azul operates to Orlando or Fort Lauderdale, alternating with other A330 aircraft, these with Azul's normal configuration, with business and economy (here in the 2x3x2 configuration). The problem is that the passenger often only discovered the change of plane when booking a seat or boarding. And a lot of people have been complaining about this “downgrade” since then.
Azul admits that it did not expect so much negative repercussion and, given so many complaints, the retrofit to make the aircraft its own, which was scheduled to take place next year, will be brought forward.
Return of the “old” plane
The first measure that Azul will take is take one of the aircraft acquired from AirAsia out of operation. As its models are grounded mainly due to engine problems, the solution devised by the company is to place the new plane's engine in the one in the hangar, thus returning to flying with an aircraft with the standard that everyone already knows, with its traditional business class, Blue spaces (Economy Xtra) and entertainment screen in all seats, including Economy.
Traditional Azul A330neo executive
This plane will be used on routes from Viracopos Airport, in Campinas (SP) to Florida from July 31st – that is, anyone taking flights from Azul's main hub to Orlando or Fort Lauderdale from that date onwards will not find the biggest reason for the discord. Meanwhile, the parked plane without an engine that came from AirAsia will begin to undergo retrofitting, but is not expected to return to the air due mainly to delays in the delivery of supplies and parts.
“As one of our main problems is with the aircraft engines, we thought what would be the best solution to have a plane with the standard that our passengers are used to without having to stop our operations. And we decided to change the engine”, explained Jason Ward, vice president of People and Customers at Azul, to Melhores Destinos.
In our research, we have already found the “old” A330 flying from Campinas to Orlando in August, with its business class in the 1x2x1 standard and “only” 39 rows in total (compared to the 51 rows of the AirAsia A330).
As operations cannot stop, the other aircraft will continue flights to Florida from Confins (Belo Horizonte) and Recife, but with an important change: Azul will block more than 70 middle seats in some rowsoffering more space for passengers who choose these seats.
“With this change, we will also offer exemption from seat assignment from rows 41 to 51″, said Jason Ward.
This new configuration is already happening on some occasional flights, due to the high holiday season, but in August it will occur on all flights. In our research we have already found different trips from Recife to Orlando with the middle seats blocked in rows 7 to 33, in a 2x2x2 configuration. From row 34 to 43 it follows the 3x3x3 pattern, while rows 44 to 51 are in the 2x3x2 pattern due to the rear tapering of the aircraft.
All aircraft ready in 2025
In addition to the two aircraft that have already arrived from AirAsia, Azul is awaiting two other A330ceo aircraft from Condor, for August and September. Jason Ward, however, guarantees that these models will arrive with a better configuration, with fewer seats and an entertainment system.
“It will still not be the same model that passengers are used to flying with Azul, the entertainment screen is an inferior version to the one we already have, for example, but we can say that it is a plane with a standard more similar to ours” , he stated.
Despite being a gradual change to return to its standard, Azul recognizes that it made a mistake by not being as transparent with customers with these different planes. “Our passengers are used to finding a standard of offers that suddenly were no longer on our flights. I believe we made a mistake in communicating with them”, said Jason. “As we wanted to get the plane flying straight away, we didn’t even have time to paint it. And passengers ask themselves when they enter: 'Am I flying in Azul?'”, he pointed out, remembering that only one of the aircraft was stickered with the Azul logo and the other is white, without any identification.
Despite recognizing that Azul could have acted a little differently in this case, Azul's directors believe that it was not possible to leave the plane idle for a long time for a retrofit – especially because this process takes a long time. “The global world of planes is limited, no one has aircraft. And our priority was to maintain and grow our network. We searched everywhere and found these planes,” President Abhi Shah recently told Melhores Destinos.
If, on the one hand, Azul is already moving to deliver a plane that meets its standards, on the other hand, passengers need to know that it will still take a while for the company to have all aircraft with the same configuration. The plans for this to happen are only at the end of 2025.
“Retrofitting is a process that takes a long time. It is necessary to buy all the parts, carry out tests and then have different approvals and certifications, from Anac, Airbus and others. And then there will be another 60 days in the hangar just to make all the changes”, Jason pointed out.
The two aircraft that have already arrived from AirAsia will stay with Azul for 10 years, while the planes that come from Condor will have a useful life of four years. The company is still expected to receive another two A330s from Air Belgium next year to make international flights.
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