Brazil’s largest airline company, TAM S.A., was granted official authorization from the Brazilian National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC) to start operating seven flights per week connecting Brazil and London, England.
The new flight was confirmed at a meeting held by ANAC and published in the Diário Oficial (Federal Official Gazette) on April 10. This will be the second European destination operated by TAM, which already offers two daily flights to Paris.
In the following months, the Company will announce when it will start to operate the new international route.
ANAC has also authorized TAM to increase its offer of flights to Argentina, with an additional 172,166 seats per year. The Company currently operates six daily flights to Ezeiza International Airport, in Buenos Aires (Argentina). Flights on this route depart from São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, Florianópolis and Porto Alegre.
Also in the international segment, beginning next May 30, TAM will start operating non-stop, daily service to New York using the modern Airbus A330-200.
Effective June 1, the Company will commence daily service connecting Manaus to Miami. The new route will be operated using Airbus A320 aircraft. This flight will depart from Fortaleza, with stops in Belém and Manaus, and will allow connections with Brasilia’s hub.
With the inauguration of this additional service, TAM will offer three non-stop daily flights to Miami departing from Guarulhos and, on the new route, from Manaus. Once a week, one of the flights from Guarulhos stops in Salvador.
In addition to international flights to Miami, New York, Paris, and Buenos Aires, TAM has daily flights to Santiago, Chile. The Company also offers a daily service to Lima, Peru, operating under a code-share agreement with Taca airline.
With TAM Mercosur, it serves another seven destinations: Assunción, Ciudad del Este and Pedro Juan Caballero (Paraguay), Montevideo and Punta del Este (Uruguay), and Santa Cruz de la Sierra and Cochabamba (Bolivia).
TAM also has code-share agreements with international airlines that allow passengers to travel to a variety of destinations worldwide.
TAM has been a leader in the Brazilian domestic market for more than two years, and had a 44.2% market share at the end of March 2006. TAM operates regular flights to 46 destinations throughout Brazil.
It serves 73 different cities in the domestic market through regional alliances. Additionally, it maintains code-share agreements with international airline companies that allow the passenger to travel to a large number of destinations throughout the world.
TAM was the first Brazilian airline company to launch a loyalty program. Currently, the program has 3 million subscribers and has awarded more than 3.3 million tickets.
TAM Airlines – www.tam.com.br