The U.S. Department of Transportation announced that it has given permission for US Airways to begin flying to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The daily flights will originate in US Airways’ Philadelphia hub, fly to Charlotte, N.C. and then on to Rio de Janeiro. It will be primarily operated with Boeing 767 aircraft, and service is tentatively scheduled to begin in fall 2009.
US Airways Chairman and CEO Doug Parker said, "We are honored by the Department's decision to tentatively award US Airways with its first-ever service to South America. I want to thank Secretary LaHood and others on his staff for a fair and thorough review of our application. Thanks to their work, customers in 82 communities throughout the United States will now have easy, one-stop connecting service to Rio de Janeiro with the new route.”
