Rio de Janeiro (29)

photo photo

Source: WTL photograph© (on left) on site in Rio de Janeiro; image on right (Google Images)

Comments: On the leftr is a view of the former headquarters of what was once Brazil's major airline, Varig. The name Varig stood for Viação Aérea Rio Grandense. It then became VRG Linhas Aéreas, which was Brazil's flag carrier airline. In 2005 the airline went into bankrupcy reorganization, and in 2006, it was downsized so much that it became Brazil's second largest airline. The reason why there is a photo of Varig in this presentation of Brazil and Rio de Janeiro is that Varig was the first airline in Brazil: 1927, the same year that Charles Lindbergh flew the Spirit of St. Louis across the Atlantic. The largest Brazilian airline then became TAM Airlines (TAM Linhas Aéreas), based in São Paulo. TAM operated international flights throughout South America, to the major European capitals, and to Miami and JFK in the United States. TAM then fused with LAN Chile and became LATAM Airlines Group S.A., which is a South American airline holding company under Chilean law with headquarters in Santiago, Chile with offices also in São Paulo, Brazil, and subsidiaries in Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Peru. In 2015 LATAM announced that all LATAM Airline Group airlines would rebrand as LATAM with, by 2018, the same identifying brand on all the group's aircraft.