[CASE STUDY] Azul saved 1.5M liters of fuel by optimizing arrival procedures

Fuel efficiency is an industry-wide transformation and Azul Linhas Aéreas Brasileiras took that transformation into the airspace itself. Through Project Viracopos, the team compared planned and actual flight paths at their main hub, then worked with Brazil's air navigation authority to change the procedures. The result: 1.5 million liters of jet fuel saved in 2025.

About Azul Linhas Aéreas Brasileiras

The purpose of the project at Viracopos Airport

Project Viracopos set out to increase efficiency in flight trajectories at Azul's main hub, with two initiatives: modifying STAR (arrival) and SID (departure) procedures, and reducing flight time and ground distance, to lower fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.

"By optimizing how aircraft arrive and depart within the TMA, we could improve overall air traffic flow and reduce unnecessary track miles."

Juliana Paes dos Santos
Fuel Efficiency Engineering Coordinator at Azul

Finding the gap between the charts and the flights

Azul's team started by overlaying actual flight paths on the published chart with SkyBreathe® Map. What they found was a high rate of ATC clearances diverging from it. In reality, pilots were flying a different path than the chart described.

That gap became the starting point: why not change the chart to match what pilots were actually flying?

From there, the team analyzed ATC clearances, level adherence, and planned versus executed trajectories in depth, building the evidence they needed to bring to DECEA and propose procedural changes.

The changes, and what they delivered

• UTLOT STAR: one of Azul's most used arrival routes, with an average fuel burn of 127 kg before the redesign. After 12 modifications to arrival and departure charts, the average weighted fuel burn dropped to 70 kg, affecting roughly 3,700 flights a month and saving over 200,000 liters of fuel.
   
• EDMUS STAR: flight distance cut from 135.3 NM to 95.8 NM, a reduction of 39.5 NM.
  
  

• ENTIT STAR: The new ENTIT STAR burns 31.88 kg less fuel on average than the previous one, is roughly 6 NM shorter, and is 83 seconds faster per flight.
  
  

   

  "After the redesign, the new average weighted fuel burn was around 70 kilos, which is a drastic reduction from what we had before. To reach this, we made around 12 modifications in total."

  Juliana Paes dos Santos, Fuel Efficiency Coordinator at Azul 

Results across 2025

• ⛽ 1.5 million liters of jet fuel saved from January to December.
• ⏱️ 1 minute less per operation on average, across 9,000 flights analyzed.
• 🛬 55 hours less in monthly departure time, 100 hours less in monthly arrival time at VCP.
  
  

What's next

Azul is extending the same data-driven approach to TMA Belo Horizonte in 2026 and TMA Rio de Janeiro in 2027, using SkyBreathe® to build the same evidence base and building on the confidence Project Viracopos gave the team.

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