Varig Varig's subsidiaries: After two unsuccessful attempts to auction the airline as a whole, the bankruptcy court decided to split the airline in two different judicial entities, informally known as "old" Varig and "new" Varig: Since , the former "Viação Aérea Rio-Grandense S/A" was judicially known as "Nordeste Linhas Aéreas S/A", and operated under the brand-name Flex Linhas Aéreas. On 18 August 2009, the National Civil Aviation Agency of Brazil renewed the authorization of Flex to operate non-regular passenger, cargo and postal services. Therefore, Flex operated flights on behalf of other airlines, as contracted. Between 17 June 2005 and 2 September
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