The underwriters for the offering are Morgan Stanley, Raymond James, Itaú BBA, Goldman Sachs, Pine, Santander, Banco do Brasil Securities and Deutsche Bank.
Azul has been the fastest growing airline in Brazil in terms of available seats per kilometer (ASKs) since it commenced operations in December 2008, and it currently has the largest airline network in the country in terms of cities served. At the end of September, the company recorded 103 destinations, 217 routes and 864 departures per day. The model is to stimulate demand by providing frequent and affordable air service to underserved markets, with the result that it is the sole airline on 64.9% of its existing routes and has a 31.6% share of the Brazilian aviation market in terms of departures.
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The company was founded by entrepreneur David Neeleman and is the latest of his four airline ventures with sustained operational viability in three different countries, including JetBlue. Azul is backed by Neeleman and other key shareholders, such as Weston Presidio, TPG Growth, Fidelity, Gávea Investimentos and Grupo Bozano. The company has a management team that combines local knowledge with diversified experience in and knowledge of best practices from the United States, the world’s largest and most competitive aviation market.
Azul believes it can continue expanding its domestic network while simultaneously leveraging the strong connectivity it has created in Brazil to benefit from the addition of select international destinations in the United States.
The company has an operating fleet of 128 aircraft, composed of 77 modern Embraer E-Jets, which seat up to 118 customers, and 51 fuel-efficient ATR aircraft, which seat up to 70 customers. These allow the company to effectively match capacity to demand and offer more convenient and frequent nonstop service than competitors, who exclusively fly larger aircraft within Brazil.
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The filing goes on to say:
Brazil, which is geographically similar in size to the continental United States, is the third largest market for domestic passengers after the United States and China, and is expected to reach 122.4 million domestic passengers by 2017, an increase of 32 million passengers compared to 90 million in 2013, according to Innovata data. We believe Brazil continues to show significant growth potential as air travel is still significantly underpenetrated, with 0.4 average flight segments flown per person per year, compared to 2.6 in a mature market such as the United States in 2012.
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