TAM to fly Heathrow to Rio
TAM Brazilian Airlines is to begin offering direct flights on A330-200s from Rio to both London and Frankfurt from this August. The airline, a recent full member of Star Alliance, will configure the aircraft layout with four First Class, 36 Executive and 183 Economy.
Flights will run overnight in both directions and the daily direct Sao Paulo flight will depart Brazil 30 minutes later than before, but arrive in London at the same time.
Part of the advantage of the new direct flights to Rio is to free up capacity on the Sao Paulo service, while Rio also provides good onward services to other countries in Latin America.
Rio de Janeiro receives strong business traffic, led by the oil and gas and finance industries, while an increase in movement is also in preparation for the Olympic Games taking place in London and Rio in 2012 and 2016 respectively, while Brazil will also host the World Cup in 2014.