Virgin Atlantic announced a codeshare agreement with LATAM Airlines on Tuesday. Thanks to it, passengers of the British airline will be able to travel from London Heathrow Airport to São Paulo on the flight operated daily by the South American carrier.
From the largest Brazilian city, it will be possible to make connections to 12 domestic destinations such as Rio de Janeiro, Salvador and Florianópolis.
Within the partnership, LATAM customers will also be able to continue their travel from London to destinations such as Tel Aviv, Delhi and Hong Kong.
“We’re incredibly excited to launch this new codeshare partnership with LATAM Airlines,” said Juha Jarvinen, Chief Commercial Officer, Virgin Atlantic.
“As global economies gradually recover from the impact of the pandemic, we also expect to capture demand from corporate travel heading to São Paulo, the commercial capital of Brazil as well as other key business hubs in South America.”
Plans to fly to Brazil canceled
The deal comes almost three years after Virgin Atlantic announced a flight between London and São Paulo. The company had planned to start the link between the two cities in March 2020 and even held a press conference in November 2019 attended by founder Richard Branson.
At the time, Virgin intended to compete with British Airways and LATAM, the rival’s partner at the time.
The daily flight ended up canceled by the company before it started, when the Covid-19 pandemic began to spread across the world.
In the meantime, LATAM has entered into a long-term partnership with Delta Air Lines and left the Oneworld alliance, moving away from British Airways. The US airline also owns shares in Virgin Atlantic, which made it natural for the two airlines to become close.
