| Resumo : |
Low-cost airlines can be considered largely responsible for the growth of air transport passengers worldwide. A low-cost airline relies on reducing its operating costs to reduce the average ticket price. Since the deregulation of the U.S. air market and, subsequently, other markets, this business model's expansion has attracted many price sensitive consumers to the air transport market. Because of their ability to attract demand for air travel, regulators and participants in this industry are turning their attention to these airlines' movements, trying to understand how these companies operate and which routes they will enter in the future. At the same time, there is currently a saturation of some markets, forcing some of these companies to adopt new strategies for their survival in the market, such the merger with other airlines and business model hybridization. In this context, this research examines the Brazilian domestic network construction of Azul, considered as a low-cost airline in this study. One objective of the research is to understand how this airline decides which cities it will enter in the coming years, what characteristics are essential in a potential market, and how those characteristics affect the entry probability. Another objective of this research is to analyze how Azul's merger with the regional airline Trip has affected the company's network planning. To achieve these objectives, this study uses a Probit econometric model to characterize the airline's entry model. This model explains Azul's entry decision according to the observable characteristics of the Brazilian airline market. Results show that Azul's business model is based on connecting new destinations, not served yet by rivals, to one of its hubs, and consistently avoiding dominant airlines at both route and airport levels. Regarding the effects of the merger, results suggest that Azul has shifted away from its original model based on JetBlue's towards a more regional-oriented model, increasingly entering shorter routes and regional airports. |