The world is rapidly running out of South American airlines that have not entered bankruptcy protection.

(Before you protest, North America doesn’t exactly have a spotless record, either.)

Azul Brazilian Airlines has flirted with bankruptcy for years. Inevitably reaching an out-of-court restructuring each time, the airline filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York on May 28, 2025.

While Azul takes the brunt of the bad press presently, it is the fourth large South American airline to transit bankruptcy in the last half-decade.

Avianca’s bankruptcy journey lasted from May 2020 through December 2021. LATAM entered the same month in 2020 and exited in November 2022. Gol entered in January of 2024 and is set to exit, well, tomorrow.

Azul started as an E-Jet-only fleet, expanding to turboprops with the acquisition of TRIP in 2014. Later growth added A330-200 widebodies to incorporate long-haul flights to North America, and ultimately Europe. Notably, the inception of widebody service also included an order for 5 A350 aircraft that no longer operate at the airline. The airline then added A320neo aircraft in 2016 before adding the A330neo in 2019.

Already, a list of early rejected leases was erroneously released, focusing primarily on stored aircraft. Nine E195 aircraft were rejected, along with two 737-400F cargo conversion aircraft that have since been replaced by the A321 P2F.

In Q4 last year, our research suggested a 65% likelihood Azul would enter bankruptcy protection over the next five years - an extraordinarily high probability. Today, that number is 35 points higher.

(If you are a subscriber to our research and would like to review the unpublished Q4 2024 competitive report on Azul, send us a note. If not, consider subscribing.)

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