Azul steps into next-gen era with A321P2F launch

Azul will become the second carrier based in Brazil — and all of Latin America — to operate an A321 freighter when it launches scheduled commercial flights this weekend. The airline plans to put its two A321-200P2Fs into service on Feb. 15, it announced last week. The two 2006-vintage, V2500-powered freighters (2741 and 2759), which Azul has leased from AerCap, arrived in Brazil in the fourth quarter of 2024 and will be based in Campinas (VCP). “We are very, very excited to have this airplane fly in terms of capacity, reliability and to expand with new routes,” Azul Cargo Fleet and Operations Manager Dario Matsuguma says in this week’s episode of “Cargo Facts Connect,” recorded at Cargo Facts LATAM 2025 in Sao Paulo. “[Our customers] are asking us a lot of questions about the opportunities they are getting for this new fleet,” he says. The Airbus narrowbodies are replacing Azul’s two leased 737-400Fs — the only Boeing aircraft in the carrier’s fleet. In fact, Azul has already removed one from service, with the 1997-vintage unit 28053 entering storage at Tarbes-Lourdes-Pyrenees Airport (LDE) in France in December 2024 while the 1996-vintage unit 28198 is still flying. “The second one, we expect to return in March,” Matsuguma says. “But I can say that [the 737s] did a great job. They opened the market for cargo and freighters, and we all learned a lot with that airplane, but we decided to shift to the A321 due to commonality with our passenger fleet; the synergy is the key factor for us.” Brazil’s National Civil Aviation Agency validated the EFW A321-200P2F conversion and the 321 Precision Conversions A321-200PCF in September 2024. The first Latin American operator of an A321F was fellow Brazilian carrier Levu, which got its AOC in November 2024 and started flying a 1998-vintage, CFM56-powered A321-200PCF (775) that it subleased from SmartLynx. Tune in to this week’s “Cargo Facts Connect” to hear more on Azul as Matsuguma speaks with Cargo Facts Senior Associate Editor Robert Luke at Cargo Facts LATAM 2025.