Brazillian Main Airlines (4)

AVIANCA

www.avianca.com.br

Avianca started operating in Brazil as a small carrier. Nowadays it has a fleet of new A319 and A320, all with flight entertainment. The food is the best among domestic flights.

Its flights can now earn points for LIFE MILES milleage program, which is used in AVIANCA International and Copa Arilines, as well other carriers in South and Central America. In this sense, AVIANCA is a good option for South and Central America travels combined with Brazil. 

AVIANCA itself flies from São Paulo (GRU) to Bogotá, where it is located its main hub. Copa flies from Panama to São Paulo, Rio, Porto Alegre, Recife and Manaus. 

AVIANCA tried a merge with TAP (the Portuguese airline), but in the end the group of David Neeleman, owner of AZUL and JET BLUE, was declarated winner of the dispute by the portuguese government.

AVIANCA operates in main terminals at brazillian airports, so no worries about going to some isolated terminal. 

Brazillian main airlines (3)

AZUL

www.voeazul.com.br

Azul, along with Avianca, has minor market shares, but a good net of flights along Brazil.
It is owned by David Neeleman, the owner of JetBlue in the US. As he has both nationalities, he could have an airline operating domestic flights in Brazil.

Azul operates mainly from Viracopos Airport (VCP), in Campinas, a 1 million inhabitant city in the rich countryside of São Paulo State, 92km away from the city of São Paulo. It operates mainly with Embraer (Emb 145, Emb 195) airplanes. The planes are smaller than Airbus and Boeings operated by TAM and GOL, but the internal lay-out is very pleasant and spacious. The fleet is quite new and silent.

Viracopos has been, for years, mainly a cargo airport, but Azul took advantage of its infrastructure and location to build a domestic flights´ hub. If your destination is the city of São Paulo, they offer a shuttle to the city, but it takes at least one hour in the road, and God knows how long in the traffic jam in the city. A taxi may be quite expensive.

In the long run, Viracopos is supposed to be the biggest brazillian Airport, if connected by a high-speed train to the city of São Paulo, as it is the only airport in São Paulo´s metropolitan area with free space, on its borders, to grow more. The airport has been renovated for the World Cup, speacially the passenger´s lounge.

Now Azul has started to operate international flights to Orlando (MCO) and Fort Lauderdale (FLL),
Azul is operating also in the international airport (GRU), but from Terminal 4, which is separated from the rest of the airport. In Brasilia it operates also in a separeted terminal. So, you´d better pay attention when flying Azul, because you can loose your flight if you get in the main concourse of those airports.

Azul is also investing on big and medium-sized cities in the countryside of Brazil, so you can reach other destiny´s than the States´capitals, already well served by GOL and TAM flights. Now Azul´s site is announcing direct flights from Cuiabá (capital of Mato Grosso State) to many cities in the country.

Brazillian main airlines (2)

GOL

www.voegol.com.br 

GOL was created as the first low-cost carrier in Brazil. Of course, it changed the industry in Brazil, but prices aren´t necessarily the best.

GOL stopped serving meals for free, but recently it has announced this service will be retaken. So far, you have to pay for sandwiches and snacks, just water is for free.

GOL flies outside Brazil just to south-american countries (Caracas, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Cordoba) and has flights to the US stopping in the Caribbean (Santo Domingo) or in Venezuela (Caracas). It doesn´t flies to Europe.

Nevertheless, GOL has agreements with Delta and Air France, so it´s possible to fly domestic GOL flights, as a complement of international flights bought in the websites of those companies.

GOL has a fleet of boeings 737-700/800 mostly.

It´s fidelity program is “Smiles” (www.smiles.com.br), which was inherited from Varig, the old international Brazillian carrier which has bankrupted. Gol bought what was left from Varig, and maintained its milleage program.

Nevertheless, GOL didn´t preserve the name and the international flights that Varig had.

GOL operates mostly from São Paulo international (GRU, Terminal 1) and domestic (CGH), Rio international (GIG) and domestic (SDU), Belo Horizonte (CNF) and Brasília (BSB). 

Brazillian main airlines

TAM (Transportes Aéreos Mercosul)

www.tam.com.br

TAM started as a small carrier in São Paulo state, and now TAM has the biggest fleet in Brazil. It is also the brazillian main carrier of international flights. Its hub is São Paulo International Airport (located in Guarulhos, GRU Aiport www.gruairport.com.br), from where it flies to Europe (Milan, Frankfurt, Paris, London, Bracelona), the US (Miami, New York, Orlando) and almost every south-american country (Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Santiago, Bogotá, Lima). TAM flies also to Mexico City and Cancun (a recently opened flight) from São Paulo International - GRU. TAM has flights to Europe and US from Rio (Galeão, GIG airport). TAM also provides some international flights to the US from Brasília (BSB airport) and Manaus.

TAM merged with the chilean airline LAN, forming the LATAM group. They became the biggest airline group in South America; now both companies share flights and the milleage program. Because of that, the Brazillian merger´s authority demanded TAM to leave staralliance international milleage program. So, TAM joined the oneworld milleage program.

It´s own milleage program is called TAM Fidelidade, which was expanded for other business in Brazil, trhough Multiplus Fidelidade www.multiplusfidelidade.com.br

TAM´s fleet is mostly composed by Aribus A319, A320, A321, and recently TAM bought the A350W for international flights. It operates some Boeings 777 on international flights.

LATAM group has recently annouced that it intends to build another hub in one of the following three cities, in the northeast region of Brazil: Fortaleza, Recife or Natal. Due to its strategic position almost in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, the northeast region of Brazil was put in the companie´s future plans of providing new connections with Europe.

TAM´s international flights, allied with LAN´s net and its vast domestic flight network, can make things easier when travelling to Brazil.