A Former Intern's View: Why Azul is Soaring

I have been reminiscing about my experience at Azul Brazilian Airlines lately. I was definitely fortunate to have learned from the best during my brief time there. They were recently named as one of the Top 50 Most Innovative companies in the world, right up there with Apple, Facebook, Groupon, etc. And check out the interview at the bottom of my post where David Neeleman says that Azul is on track to earn sales of $1 billion this year - after only 3 years in business. Wow!  It is amazing to me that they are having such monumental success in an industry that has really been struggling lately.

A big part of it is their focus on the customer and giving them a good experience. Not to mention the extremely affordable price. When Azul entered the market, the Brazilian airline industry was plagued by a duopoly that drove the price of airfare up to 150% of what it should have been. Only the rich flew. The driving force behind Azul was the idea that fares needed to compete with inter-state buses, which the majority of the Brazilian public used as transportation. So not only was it cheap, but when I flew on Azul I loved the new planes, the lack of a middle seat, the in-flight entertainment, the friendly stewardesses, and unlimited delicious snacks. It's almost like flying on Azul is a time-machine ride back to the glory days of commercial flight. I compare that to my recent experiences on Delta lately where I feel like they gouge you to death with fees and flying feels like an annoyance.

As if Azul wasn't affordable enough already, at one point they launched an extremely popular promotion called Passaporte Azul, similar to Jet Blue's All-You-Can-Jet Pass. For 500 Reais (around $200) you could fly anywhere in Brazil as many times as you wanted within that month! Letters poured in about how family members were reunited after many years because they could finally afford to fly. People in the middle and lower classes were flying for the first time in their lives. Azul was literally changing people's lives. At one point, I was asked to go to the airport and film some customer testimonials of people using the Passaporte Azul. I found a couple guys who were childhood friends who hadn't seen each other in years but happened to bump into each other on their flight. Both had purchased one of the passes so they decided to travel the country together for a whole month. Of all the people I filmed, not once did I hear a complaint or a lack of enthusiasm. In many cases people were actually grateful to the company and its founder, David Neeleman. When was the last time you heard someone filled with gratitude for their long flight from LA to New York? Everyone who flies Azul literally loves it.

Obviously building a great customer experience is essential, but you have to get the word out about it somehow. I may be slightly partial, but since my internship in Sao Paulo was in their marketing department I also attribute a big part of Azul's success to their creative and innovative marketing. Most of what we did would definitely be considered unconventional or non-traditional. We didn't advertise in newspapers or do big-bidget TV ads. I personally spent a lot of time working on creative promotions via Facebook and Twitter. Not only that, but I got to help with the launch of Azul's own social network viajamos.com.br, which means "we travel" in Portuguese and is a site dedicated to travel in Brazil. That, of course, was when I wasn't doing guerilla marketing, roaming the beaches of Rio de Janeiro handing out flyers and signing people up for Azul's frequent flyer program. Hey, it was a tough job, but someone had to do it! (photos to the left). It just goes to show you don't always need a gigantic, multi-million dollar advertising budget to be profitable. If you have a great product/service and some creative ideas to get the word out, success will follow.

I blogged about my semester with Azul, and you can read about my experiences at www.asaventurasdojj.blogspot.com  

Anyway, when I was there I remember the big party they threw when they reached 2 million passengers in
their first year of business. It was a world record. No airline in the history of aviation had ever reached that many passengers in its first year. It was very exciting to be part of that! Now, less than a year and a half later they have reached over 8 million. They started by flying between 3 cities. Three. Now they have flights to over 30. Stunning success! If there was ever a successful businessman to emulate, it would be David Neeleman. And rumor has it he might buy back Jet Blue. If he does, my resume will be one of the first in the inbox. 
Update 2021: These days I'm traveling with kids via minivan and you can read all about it on The Minivan Bucket List