Flights to Fortaleza, Natal, Recife?

[BillyZ]

As best I can figure out, Varig apparently no longer

has *any* international flights into Fortaleza, Natal,

Recife, Belem, or even Salvador.

 

The route map at http://www.varigbrasil.com/english/

still shows lots of such seemingly defunct routes.

But the Varig agent confirmed what Travelocity and

the search engine at http://www.star-alliance.com/

are showing, SP and Rio are the required gateways

to the northeast corner of Brazil.

 

I cannot find any non-puddle-jumper airline that

flies from the U.S. (or Europe) to northeast Brazil

now without adding another five or six hours flying

farther south to Sao Paulo or Rio, waiting, changing

planes, and then flying back up to the northeast.

 

Am I missing something?

Any secret routes anyone can share?

Thanks for any tips, Billy

[trilingual]

I think there are still non-stop flights to Northeastern destinations on some European airlines, especially now, during the high season. You might check Air France, Lufthansa, TAP (Portuguese Airlines) and Iberia, if you can fly from Europe. Natal is a smaller city, so I don't know if it has any direct int'l service. But there have been direct flights from Europe to Fortaleza, Recife and Salvador.

 

Otherwise, you're right, there aren't any direct international flights to the Northeastern capitals right now on the Brazilian airlines, and none from the U.S. that I know of.

 

Even though it isn't as convenient as flying directly, these destinations are only another 3 hours or so from Rio/SP on non-stop flights. So compare fares. You may find you can save a lot of money making a connection in Rio/SP, which might make the extra hours worth it.

[trilingual]

RE: "Secret" Flights

 

If you fly to Cayenne (French Guiana) there's a flight from there to Belem, with connections to the rest of the Northeast. I suspect it isn't the cheapest way to go, though! :-)

 

There is (or was) service from Caracas to Manaus, and you can connect in Manaus for flights to the Northeastern capitals, too.

[CarloRio]

Flights to Northeast

 

As Trilingual mentioned previously. The only airline that flies directly from Europe to Natal, Fortaleza and Recife is TAP (Air Portugal), it's got flights from Lisboa to these three cities plus Salvador.

 

Um abraço,

 

Carlo Romano