Things are surely going pretty well on Lufthansa’s new Frankfurt – Rio de Janeiro frequency. Only a couple of months after launching the route the airline announces a new weekly frequency, making it a total of six weekly flights between both destinations. The new frequency will start operating on 26 March. As well as the Rio flight, Lufthansa has daily direct flights from Frankfurt and Munich to Guarulhos international airport in São Paulo.

Argentina’s airport authorities removed the authorization Lan Argentina had to fly from the Aeroparque airport in downtown Buenos Aires to Brazil. Two daily flights were specifically unauthorized, those going to (and returning from) São Paulo. Now Lan Argentina is rescheduling those flights, numbers LA4540/LA4541 y LA4544/4545.

On a release on its website the airline is asking affected costumbers to get in touch with the company.

Delta Airlines has just turned its Atlanta to Brasilia into a daily flight and has also increased the frequency of its Detroit – São Paulo. This move, coupled with the incorporation of larger aircraft to the routes has allowed the airline to increase its presence in Brazil. For 2012, as registered by Panrotas, the company intends to turn Brasilia, the Brazilian capital, into its hub for all Brazilian destinations.

We are told that Iberia is contemplating new frequencies between Madrid and Rio de Janeiro. On the news item, in Portuguese, Iberia’s sales manager declares 2011 was an excellent year for the company. Fragile memory, I would say, as it was only a few weeks ago that Iberia cancelled its Madrid to Fortaleza and Recife flight.

Brazilian airline Gol plans to turn its three times a week flight from Rosario in Argentina to Porto Alegre into a daily flight. The change will coincide with the summer holiday season in the southern hemisphere and the daily flight will operate from 1 December 2011 till 3 April 2012.

Aruba’s tourism authorities are negotiating with the airlines Gol and Avianca the setting up of one or several new direct flights from Brazil to the Caribbean island. As usual, if those negotiatings bring about any new flights we will let you know promptly here at D Airfare.

Brazil’s Gol and Argentina’s Aerolíneas Argentinas have just reached an agreement allowing miles accrued flying with one airline to be deposited in the frequent flyer program of the other company. The agreement will also allow for domestic flights in Argentina to be issued with a Gol code and domestic flights in Brazil with an Aerolíneas code.

It is estimated it will take up to five months for the agreement to be implemented. The civil aviation authorities from both countries still need to approve the agreement.

On 27 October Uruguay’s airline Pluna will add a second daily flight to its Montevideo to Campinas route (the only exception will be Fridays when there will only be one daily flight). The flight lasts approximately three hours. Campinas is the main hub of Brazilian airline Azul, offering connections to a score of tourists destinations throughout Brazil. Campinas airport also offers easy access to the city of São Paulo.

From time to time we like to have a look at the figures published on a regular basis detailing the composition of the domestic aviation market. According to the official body ANAC, these are the airlines dominating the domestic market in August 2011:

• Gol, 38.84% of market share
• Tam, 38.37% of market share
• Azul, 9.27% of market share
• Webjet, 5.74% of market share
• Avianca Brasil, 3.55% of market share
• Trip, 3.43% of market share

The remaining airlines add up to less than 1%. As Gol has just had its purchase of Webjet approved, its market share should increase during the coming months.

Infraero, the Brazilian airport authority, would have given the go ahead to Emirates’ request to bring to Brazil one of its Airbus A-380. The largest passenger aircraft in the world would arrive in Guarulhos airport in São Paulo at the end of the year. The only remaining issue is the time of the flight, as the largest Brazilian airport can’t cope with any more flights during its ever increasing rush hour. If the plane ends up landing and taking off in the early hours of the morning it will be a big disappointment for many aviation fans.

The source for the news is Folha de São Paulo and the shot ilustrating this post -reproduced here under a Creative Commons licence, belongs to photographer briYYZ . We will be testing one of Emirates’ A380 shortly and will let you know of our passenger experience.