Brazil better connected to Europe in 2023
Brazil is seeing its air connections improving with Europe over the summer season with over three million seats on offer between Europe and the Latin American country, up by 14.3% over the same period of 2022
In the period between April and December 2023, over three million seats are on offer on international flights from Europe to Brazil. According to the Brazil Agency for the Promotion of International Tourism Embratur, this represents an increase of 14.3% compared to the same period of 2022. The report is based on data from Embratur’s Intelligence Department in collaboration with ForwardKeys, a leading world’s provider of travel data analytics.
“Air connectivity has always played a critical role in the growth of international tourism, and the good news is that we have already made great progress in the first three months of the year. Last week we started negotiations with 32 airlines, three of them from Germany,” said Marcelo Freixo, President of Embratur.
According to him, technology has helped in negotiations with airlines. “With the help of Big Data, we know where and who are the potential new tourists interested in tourism offers in Brazil, he said. “This way, we first show the airlines the potential demand to encourage the creation of new routes. Once the new route is confirmed, our role is to network operators to support Brazilian destinations and bring tourists here.”
TAP Air Portugal, the dominant carrier between Europe and Brazil
Over the summer, many European airlines added frequencies and capacities to Brazil. The leading European carrier to Brazil remains TAP Air Portugal. In 2019, TAP had a market share of 9% of all passengers flown internationally, equivalent then to 2.19 million passengers. Last year, the airline transported 1.7 million passengers and is likely to catch up this year with 2019 figures.
The Portuguese carrier flies to a dozen cities, the largest network of any carrier in Europe. For the summer season, TAP added six weekly services -including one weekly flight to Belem, daily flights to Belo Horizonte, and six flights per week to both Brasilia and Salvador de Bahia. The Portuguese carrier offers two additional flights to Sao Paulo, going from 18 to 20 times per week. TAP flights also link Porto to Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo during the summer season with five weekly flights.
The second largest foreign airline to Brazil is Air France, which had a market share of 4.6%; equivalent to 0.5 million passengers. Since May 5, 2023, Air France added a weekly frequency from the French Carribean to Belem via Cayenne in Brazil. Another important player is again Italian national carrier ITA Airways. This summer, the carrier is increasing the number of its flights from Rome Fiumicino to Sao Paulo-Guarulhos from seven to 11 weekly frequencies. The additional flights will be partially flown by ITA brand new aircraft, the Airbus A330-900. By late October, the airline will launch its non-stop service Rio de Janeiro-Rome Fiumicino, operating seven weekly roundtrip flights.
From the Brazilian side, long-haul low-cost carrier Azul opened on April 28 its first flight from Sao Paulo-Campinas Viracopos to Paris-Orly, offering six weekly services in an Airbus A350 with 333 seats. The flight will turn daily in July. Paris is the second European destination for the Brazilian carrier after Lisbon.
