Fitting the Network as a Merger Grants New Airport Access: entry and expansion of Azul Airlines at S?o Paulo / Guarulhos Airport

摘要

One of the benefits Azul got from its merging process with TRIP Airlines in May 2012 was the access to circa 120 weekly slots at S?o Paulo / Guarulhos airport.These assets represented a de facto entry at the Brazilian biggest city for the fastest growing domestic airline in country. This paperrelies ondescriptive statistics and econometric techniques andanalyses the joint decision both airlines took from May 2012 onwards in what regardsthe presence they chose to have at this key airport. Results show that the majority of destinations served previously to the merger were heavily transferred to Campinas / Viracopos airport:these destinations were prevailingly less dense, and the company chose to link them with its primarily hub. Only dense (and highly exposed to third part competition) destination airports were kept from Guarulhos, and this was the very same profile of the number of new destinations added from that airport after the merger.Moreover, we find no capacity adjustments (flight reductions) from Campinas / Viracopos for the added adjacent airport-pairs, what suggests that Guarulhos airport plays a complementary role in the network of the new airline.The paper dialogues with the dual-hub literature.