VARIG, the Brazilian flagship carrier, has filed for bankruptcy protection. The airline is owned by an employees group known as the Rubem Berta Foundation. ILFC had set last Friday as the deadline for payment on 11 aircraft which would have been seized. The airline now has 60 days to sort itself out. TAP of Portugal, which offered to take a 20% stake in the airline, could at the end of the day find itself the owner of the airline which has a daily Boeing 777 service to Sao Paulo from Heathrow.
http://www.varig.com