Varig Porto Alegre, by Otto Ernst Meyer-Labastille, a German aviator decorated in the World War I, who immigrated to Brazil in 1921 and noticed how necessary air transportation was for a large country like Brazil. Varig was an off-spring of the German trade company and airline Condor Syndikat, thus sharing the same origin as Syndicato Condor, later renamed Serviços Aéreos Cruzeiro do Sul. Condor Syndikat gave the initial operational and financial support and for a short time Varig and the sister-company Syndicato Condor operated in partnership. The first aircraft of VARIG was a ten-passenger Dornier Do J Wal flying boat, transferred
Varig "old" Varig expired. Before and after relaunch in December 2006, "new Varig" struggled greatly to find a strategic partners, due to lack of credibility, affecting aircraft contracts, network and personnel inherited from "old" Varig. "New" Varig was facing monthly losses as high as US$20 million, and MattlinPatterson was unwilling to invest more money in the company, putting "new" Varig in extreme economic difficulties. On , Gol Airlines purchased "new Varig" (VRG Linhas Aéreas) for US$320 million, and announced that VRG Linhas Aéreas, the operator of the brand VARIG, would continue to operate under its original name. The transaction was completed