Goooooal! Brazil to add over 1900 flights for World Cup Demand
Brazilian aviation regulator ANAC said on Thursday it will likely grant airlines' requests to add 1,973 new flights to deal with the demand expected during World Cup soccer matches in June and July. Although the expansion in flights and routes represents only 1 percent of the existing system in Brazil, the number of requests exceeded the roughly 1,500 new flights that had previously been expected.
"We will grant all the requests. The system has the capacity to handle those new flights," ANAC's head, Marcelo Guaranys, told reporters in Brasilia.
The new flights should help contain the rise in air fares for which carriers have come under scrutiny recently. Airlines Azul and Avianca Brasil pledged earlier this month to cap domestic prices at 999 reais ($420).
Brazil's two biggest carriers, Gol Linhas Aereas and TAM, the local unit of Chile's Latam Airlines Group , came under fire last year when the government noticed ticket prices soaring during the World Cup.
