US Airways Wants to Go to Brazil

US Airways flies to Europe. It flies to Canada, the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America. But it does not fly to South America, and it wants to fill that void in its route system.

US Airways said it has applied for a route between its Charlotte, N.C., hub and Rio de Janeiro, under a route proceeding initiated earlier this month by the U.S. Department of Transportation. The flights would start in Philadelphia before the Charlotte stop.

Under a 2008 U.S.-Brazil air treaty, the DOT can award seven weekly flights to begin in June and seven weekly flights to begin in October.

Continental Airlines already had applied for daily service from New Orleans to Houston to Rio de Janeiro beginning June 1, and Spirit Airlines has proposed daily flights between Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Manaus, Brazil, with the frequencies that become available in October.