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 the first change since 1955 - and the membership of Varig on Star Alliance, as of . Varig was its sixth member airline, and first to join after it was launched only 5 months earlier. In spite of some success in the re-organization of the company, Pinto did not have full support of Ruben Berta Foundation, the controller of Varig and, as a consequence, he left the Presidency of Varig on . That same year he became the CEO of TAP Portugal and successfully re-organized that airline. Pinto was succeeded by Ozires Silva, former president of the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer