Brazil airline Azul says rivals blocked carrier from profitable route

Brazilian airline Azul’s CE said Thursday that its two larger competitors had barred the carrier from providing a competing air shuttle service on the highly profitable Sao Paulo to Rio de Janeiro route. “Essentially what they did was they had a shutdown plan to keep us out,” CEO John Rodgerson said, referring to competitors Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes and LATAM. The comments come weeks after Azul engineered a plan to break into the Sao Paulo-Rio de Janeiro route, by far the most transited in South America, but it fell apart after Gol and LATAM intervened. The three airlines have been disputing the airport rights set to be left behind by their struggling competitor Avianca Brasil, which was scheduled to auction the routes this week as part of a bankruptcy process. Azul initially reached a deal with Avianca Brasil but a few weeks later Gol and LATAM reached a different deal with Avianca Brasil’s key creditors, which was ultimately approved and sidelined Azul. Both plans hinged on a successful Avianca Brasil bankruptcy auction but the event was recently suspended indefinitely, meaning that even Gol and LATAM may not be able to get the airport rights they had agreed to buy. “I don’t think they ever had the intention of closing on the deal,” Rodgerson said of Gol and LATAM’s agreement with Avianca Brasil. Gol and LATAM have previously denied any anti-competitive stance.<br/>