Varig Natal along the Brazilian coast and was thus better prepared to compete with Panair do Brasil and Cruzeiro do Sul. In 1949 the Brazilian government granted to Varig the concession to fly to the United States, since the original airline which had the concession, Cruzeiro do Sul, was unable to operate the services. The inaugural flight between Rio de Janeiro-Galeão and New York-Idllwild (later renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport) was on . The services were operated by three new Lockheed L-1049G Super Constellations. On flights to Buenos Aires using Curtiss C-46s started. In January 1956 Varig served 55 cities
Varig Embraer. The administration of Ozires Silva, which lasted for only 2.5 years, started with major restructuring in the company, aiming at making Ruben Berta Foundation more powerful and the President-Director weaker. Also, on , all cargo operations were united under a new airline named VarigLog. Even so, the airline presented at the end of the year, for the first time in its history Exposed Net Assets of BRL148.6 million - that is, the amount of debits was greater than the amount of credits and assets. One year later, it would reach BRL523 million. In 2001, Varig saw the birth of