Last September’s merger of Brazil’s Varig with Rio Sul and Nordeste, its two regional-airline subsidiaries, has resulted in a new alignment of the operator’s 15 Embraer ERJ-145s, the only under-100-seat aircraft it currently flies. Alberto Fajerman, executive corporate planning vice president of Viação Aerea Rio-Grandense (Varig), told AIN that a “problematic fleet has been turned into a profitable one,” to such an extent that the company will “most likely” buy Embraer 170s and 190s. “If we come to this conclusion, we will see these Embraers in Varig livery in 2005,” he said.
To stem five years of financial losses, Rio Sul, Nordeste and Varig, the largest airline in Latin America, on September 2 pooled their fleets, 106 aircraft in all, in an operational alliance to form a new route schedule serving 70 Brazilian cities. Before the merger the three airlines operated 127 aircraft, but 21 narrowbodies were returned after their leases expired, Varig’s Fajerman explained. He said that the subsequent fleet reorganization includes a completely new network for its homogeneous fleet of 15 ERJ-145s–Rio Sul’s 12 Embraers and the three ERJ-145s previously operated by Nordeste. Rio Sul, which used to operate EMB-120 Brasilias, had returned the Embraer turboprops to their lessors.
