The expansion of Copa continues and so does its investment on Brazil. The airline has announced that starting June 2012 it will fly from its hub in Panama City to Recife, Las Vegas, Curaçao and Liberia. The flight to Recife begins on 23 June 2012 and it will have four weekly frequencies. Recife becomes the seventh destination served by Copa, currently flying to São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Brasilia, Manaus and Porto Alegre.

It is quite remarkable how Brazilian airlines have avoided decentralizing its internacional flights whereas Copa and Tap have been quite succesful doing precisely that, offering international flights to and from multiple Brazilian airports.

At arriving in Brazil: step-by-step we had explained all the procedures a passenger had to go through when arriving to Brazil in an international flight.

In the past, when you had reclaimed your baggage and done your shopping at the Duty Free shop and you headed out of the arrival areas, you had to go through customs and hand in a form stating what the contents of your luggage were (the Declaração de Bagagem Acompanhada). That is no longer the case. Since 1 January 2012 Brazil’s Inland Revenue service no longer requires arrivings passengers with no goods to declare to fill in the form (you can read the announcement, in Portuguese, at Receita simplifica vida dos passageiros).

No goods to declare (see customs restrictions on arrival)? Then head to the proper channel and in no time at all you will be walking through the open area of the airport.

Turkish Airlines wants to fly from São Paulo to Buenos Aires in 2012. It would be an extension of its current Istanbul-São Paulo flight. The company is awaiting for the permission from the authorities to begin operating the flight. If approved it will be yet another choice to fly between Guarulhos and Ezeiza.

Information from Panrotas.

Things are surely going pretty well on Lufthansa’s new Frankfurt – Rio de Janeiro frequency. Only a couple of months after launching the route the airline announces a new weekly frequency, making it a total of six weekly flights between both destinations. The new frequency will start operating on 26 March. As well as the Rio flight, Lufthansa has daily direct flights from Frankfurt and Munich to Guarulhos international airport in São Paulo.

Argentina’s airport authorities removed the authorization Lan Argentina had to fly from the Aeroparque airport in downtown Buenos Aires to Brazil. Two daily flights were specifically unauthorized, those going to (and returning from) São Paulo. Now Lan Argentina is rescheduling those flights, numbers LA4540/LA4541 y LA4544/4545.

On a release on its website the airline is asking affected costumbers to get in touch with the company.

Tam is informing its customers by email of the existence of a promo code giving 15% discount on purchases made through its website. The final day for purchases is 22 January for flights before 15 April. The code is valid for flights between Brazil and Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Milan and Paris.

The code is: 106347 (readers of our partner Aquela Passsagem have received the code 106681).

Before making any purchases read carefully the rules and don’t forget to compare fares with other airlines.

A recent text at the Contato Radar forum had an incredible figure: Viracopos international airport in Campinas, state of São Paulo, experienced a 1,025% growth in passengers in a period of just 7 years. During 2024, 675,796 used the airport. In 2011 it is expected that figure will reach 7,600,000. Viracopos is the main hub for the airline Azul. It is also expected it will become the largest Brazilian airport at the beginning of the 2020′s.

6 February 2012 is the date set of the auction that will allow three consortiums to take control of the airports of Guarulhos in São Paulo, Viracopos in Campinas and Brasilia. You will find more details on the event and the process at São Paulo and Brasília airport auctions require foreign participation in consortium. The first auction will include the airport of the Brazilian capital, the most important airport in Brazil (Guarulhos in São Paulo) and the airport that aims to become the largest Brazilian airport in the 2020′s. An Indian group will be among the competing candidates (Indians intend to compete alone for license for Brazilian airports).

Bolivian airline Aerosur will be adding on 29 February 2012 three new weekly flights between Guarulhos international airport in São Paulo and Santa Cruz de la Sierra in Bolivia, continuing onto Panama City. Departures from Brazil will be on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and the flight will be operated using a Boeing 737-300.

The airline will mantain the two routes it currently operates: São Paulo – Cochabamba and São Paulo – Santa Cruz de la Sierra – Cochabamba – La Paz.

Delta Airlines has just turned its Atlanta to Brasilia into a daily flight and has also increased the frequency of its Detroit – São Paulo. This move, coupled with the incorporation of larger aircraft to the routes has allowed the airline to increase its presence in Brazil. For 2012, as registered by Panrotas, the company intends to turn Brasilia, the Brazilian capital, into its hub for all Brazilian destinations.