TAM starts flight from Rio de Janeiro to London on 10-Aug

There will be three flights per week (Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays), operated by the modern A330 aircraft configured in three different service classes. Four seats in the First Class, 36 seats in the Business Class and 183 seats in the Economic Class, totalizing 223 passenger's seats. On the same day, we will begin our round trip direct flight between Rio de Janeiro and Frankfurt, Germany.

With this new route operated by Airbus A330 aircraft we will increase by 25% the offer of flights between Brazil and the United Kingdom, with over 3,200 seats per week in each direction. Since October 2006, we offer daily round-trip flights between Sao Paulo and London, currently operated by Boeing B777 aircraft with 362 seats, also with three classes of service

TAM's Commercial and Planning Vice-President, Paulo Castello Branco points out: "We noted steady and continuous growth in passenger demand between London and Rio de Janeiro in our flights between São Paulo and Heathrow over the past three and half years. We therefore concluded that this is the time to offer our clients the comfort and convenience of travelling directly from Rio to London, strengthening our operations in Galeão Airport, which is our second international hub in Brazil.

Our monthly average of passengers transported between Brazil and the U.K. increased from 9.5 thousand passengers in 2007 to 10.9 thousand in 2008, 15.6 thousand in 2009, and 17.2 thousand in the period of January to May this year, revealing substantial growth of 81% over this period. The average monthly load factor of the flight evolved from 73.8% in 2007 to 79.8% in the following year, after dropping to 71.8% in 2009 due to the international economic crisis, recovering the growth curve with an average load factor of 82.3% in the initial five months of 2010.