Brazil has 42% of Europe-South America seats; TAP Air Portugal begins flights to 12th airport soon

Brazil is one of 13 South American countries with non-stop or one-stop European service in NW24. Cirium schedules information data shows that Brazil has by far the most available capacity. There are more than two million one-way seats, with the country having 42% of Europe-South America capacity. Helped by Brazil’s seats rising by almost a fifth compared to W19, more than South America generally (+17%), the nation’s share of the market has grown.

Multiple airline changes in the past few years

Cirium indicates that 14 airlines have Europe-Brazil flights. They include Air China, whose Beijing PEK-Madrid-Sao Paulo GRU fifth freedom service resumed on 28 April 2024 (3-weekly).

Condor will begin Frankfurt-Rio de Janeiro GIG on 14 January 2025 (weekly). Aside from Manaus charter flights in March 2020 and 2024, it flew to Recife and Fortaleza until September 2019.

It is not all good news. Norwegian ceased flying to Brazil in March 2020, having ended all long-haul flights. Correndon ended Amsterdam-Natal flights in March 2020; they stopped to refuel in Banjul or Tenerife TFS and used the 737-800.

TAP Air Portugal has a quarter of the market

Given Portugal’s deep connection with Brazil and its geographic convenience for feeding flights across Europe, it is hardly a shock that TAP is the leading operator. Due to the carrier’s strong growth compared to NW19 (+29%), it has 25% of the available seats, up by two percentage points versus before the pandemic.

Multiple existing markets have seen strong TAP expansion, particularly Belem (+80%), Rio de Janeiro GIG (+42%) and Fortaleza (+29%). When added to LATAM, the pair have almost one in two Europe-Brazil seats.

On 3 September 2024, TAP added Europe’s flights to Florianopolis (3-weekly). On 4 November, it will return to Manaus for the first time since 2016. While it previously flew non-stop to Manaus on the A330-200, it will now be on the A321LR via Belem (3-weekly). TAP’s Brazilian network now comprises a record 12 airports. However, it has suspended Porto Alegre flights due to the aftereffects of that area’s flooding.

Lisbon continues to rank first, but Porto has fallen out of the top 10

Cirium shows that 13 European airports are linked to Brazil in NW24, the same as in NW19. London LGW lost Brazil flights due to Norwegian ending GIG in March 2020, while Paris ORY gained Azul from Sao Paulo VCP on 27 April 2023 (now daily).

Porto has fallen out of the top 10 list. While TAP continues to serve GIG and Sao Paulo GRU, Azul ceased VCP-Porto in March 2020. Milan MXP has taken Porto’s place. While LATAM continues to serve GRU-MXP daily, flights are now on the 410-seat 777-300ER rather than the 221-seat 767-300ER.

Obviously, Lisbon is the most-served airport. It has two-and-a-half times the Brazil seats of Madrid, which ranks second. Aside from TAP’s service to 12 Brazilian airports, the Portuguese capital also has Azul to VCP (12-weekly) and LATAM to GRU (13-weekly).

Madrid and not Lisbon tops the table

Europe has more than 35 Brazilian airport pairs. Inevitably, all the top 10 involve Sao Paulo (GRU/VCP) or Rio de Janeiro. The first not to do so is Lisbon-Recife in 13th place.

While Portugal appears three times in the top 10, they do not include number one, which is Madrid-GRU. It has four operators with 33 weekly flights in November: Iberia (14), LATAM (9), Air Europa (7) and Air China (3).