American exercised its Azul warrants for about 8% and put its alliances chief on the board, while United already holds a matching $100MM stake.
I wrote in July that American was growing itself into a hole, and on October 22nd it reported a third-quarter GAAP net loss of $269MM. Two days earlier, Azul announced that American had completed a $100MM investment in the Brazilian airline. That money was committed back in February, so the timing of the announcement is inconvenient for optics (though the company lost $382MM that quarter, even more than Q2.) The company that is spending abroad is the same one trying to get its balance sheet to a 3.0x net debt to EBITDAR target. For perspective, American netted just $111MM in all of 2025 on record revenue and spent nearly all of that on this Azul Airlines investment.
In June, Azul president, Abhi Shah, said United and American would each hold about 8% and have governance rights, including seats on a strategy committee. At a May summit, Shah had put it this way, “Having two big brothers on a daily basis is a huge advantage.” From Azul’s side that is a straightforward pitch. Two large carriers from the world’s largest air market, the United States, bring capital, supplier leverage and connecting traffic, and Azul needed all three coming out of bankruptcy.
A great solo travel tip spotted this week on Live and Let's Fly.
