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Tags: Azul / New Airlines / New Routes / David Neeleman / E-190s / Skyteam / → All Tags

Azul Is Flying And Now Looking For Friends

It’s been just over a month since Azul began flying around Brazil, but they’re already looking forward to bigger and better things. Not content with serving only domestic routes, the airline is reportedly looking to buddy up with the Skyteam alliance.

Although nothing is official yet, this would possibly allow for international connections and would certainly strengthen Skyteam’s network in South America.

Unfortunately, we haven’t heard any first-hand reports of flight experiences on David Neeleman’s new baby. We know there’s no TVs yet, so at least the trip reports won’t include complaints about the service dropping out and people missing their favorites telenovelas.

Have your own trip report to share? Send it our way.

Related Stories:
·Crisis May Reduce the Azul Fleet [Portal Exame]
·Neeleman's Newest Carrier Takes Off [Jaunted]
·New Airlines coverage [Jaunted]

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Tags: Travel Photography / Travel News / Active Travel / International Party Time / → All Tags

Good Morning: NYT Goes With the Brazilian Bikini Babe Photo for '44 Places to Go' Story

Robust offerings from the travel section of The New York Times this weekend, who sagely went with the Brazilian bikini babe photo to lead its 44 Places to Go in 2009 coverage. We're in a major recession here, and it's below freezing outside, so you might as well bring on the flesh. The suntanned, tattooed dancing lady holding a ... what is that, ginger ale? Anyway, she's in Florianópolis, Brazil, and in the uncropped photo that accompanies the article she's surrounded by three equally fit dudes wearing snug shorts and smoking cigarettes. Isn't it great how travel stories can always get some extra oomph from using sexy photos, because they can simply argue that they're capturing the essence of the destination?

In any case, Florianópolis does seem like a pretty great place to party the North American winter away, with more than forty beaches and scores of stylish restaurants and bars, but we're a bit more interested in destinations like Zambia. As the paper of record points out, Zambia is emerging as a safari capital to rival the big three of Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa, and the new Toka Leya Camp - well positioned just seven miles from Victoria Falls - is leading the charge. I've seen the falls, and they are indeed spectacular, so to combine that experience with some safari action (and a comfortable bed) would indeed be transcendent. As far as über-luxury escapes that we can't quite afford right now go, there's Phuket, Thailand. With "some of the most luxe accommodations on the planet," we'll have to settle for looking at the pretty pictures.

[Photo: The New York Times]

Related Stories:
· The 44 Places to Go in 2009 [The New York Times]
· International Party Time Coverage [Jaunted]

Tags: Holiday Charity / Celeb Travel / Madonna / → All Tags

Madonna Gives One Lucky Model A Happy Hanukkah

It's a holiday miracle! Madonna finally found someone more deserving than A-Rod to share her post-divorce phase.

Amid rumors that the Material Girl is going to adopt another child with her pet Yankee, she apparently got distracted when paired with Brazilian model Jesus Luz for a photo shoot. We think the price of Guy Ritchie's silence just went up.

Related Stories:
· Madonna in a Brazilian Fling [NYP]
· Madonna coverage [Jaunted]
· Celeb Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: The Superficial]

Tags: New Year's Eve / Iemanjá / Religious Festival Travel / → All Tags

The Holy Beach Of Rio

Everyone should spend at least one New Year's Eve mingling on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro. Despite the massive crowds and the often underwhelming concerts, the cheers at midnight are joyous and the sights are fantastic. But if you're in town earlier in the evening, take a walk on the beach to catch the offerings to Iemanjá, a folk tradition honored at the end of every year on the beach.

In the Afro-Brazilian Umbanda religion, Iemanjá is the goddess of the sea and the protectress of women and fertility. Umbanda practicants dress in white to bring flowers, build altars and set out floating candles for Iemanjá, a rite practiced on New Year's Eve in Rio but a few weeks earlier in Salvador de Bahia and in February in Rio Vermelho, where the local Catholic church has rededicated her as Our Lady of the Seafarers. The cachaça will wait, we promise.

Related Stories:
· Rolling Stones Hit The Great Wall [Jaunted]
· Copacabana Palace Still Rules Rio [Jaunted]
· Rio's Saucy Postcards Over [Jaunted]

[Photo: zeiger]

Tags: Television Travel / Survivor 18 / Jeff Probst / → All Tags

Survivor 18 Goes Brazilian

Its official: "Survivor 18" will take place in South America. "Survivor: Tocantins, The Brazilian Highlands" will be the title and location of the show’s 18th (!) season.

The show’s host, Jeff Probst, made the announcement during Sunday night’s season 17 finale. According to Reality World, Probst told the audience that this would be one of the most rugged locations yet, promising:

Scorching temperatures, torrential downpours [and] dangerous wildlife.

The exact location of the show is unknown, but it'll most likely be somewhere near the Rio Novo River in the Northern Brazilian state. And Probst's promise that danger is lurking has some basis in fact: During a scouting mission for the show in September, a crew member drowned in the river while swimming on a lunch break.

Related Stories:
· Survivor: Tocantins [Wikipedia]
· CBS Confirms "Survivor 18" to Be in Brazil [Reality World]

[Photo: Survivor Daily]

Tags: Traveling Alone / Celeb Travel / Madonna / Guy Ritchie / → All Tags

The Price Of Guy Ritchie's Silence

Think you've had a bad week? Not only did Madonna fall onstage last night, but she also saw her bank accounts depleted when the settlement of her divorce from Guy Ritchie was leaked.

The British-American power couple announced they were splitting earlier this fall amid rumors that she had cheated on him with Alex Rodriguez. While that was never proven, the couple gave each other a wide berth, with Ritchie staying in London to work on his Sherlock Holmes movie and Madonna keeping to her New York City apartment (which predates the marriage) when she wasn't on tour. The settlement is rumored to give Ritchie, who never signed a prenup, almost $92 million.

Madonna took the couple's son Rocco to Rio de Janeiro with her, but hopefully he wasn't watching when she slipped and fell at the Maracanã stadium (best known for hosting the World Cup in the '70s). Well, we all have those weeks.

Related Stories:
· Despite Bad Taste, Madonna And A-Rod Move Forward [Jaunted]
· Madonna To Attend But Not Perform At Hall of Fame Induction [Jaunted]
· Celeb Travel coverage [Jaunted]

Tags: Azul / New Airlines / New Routes / David Neeleman / E-190s / → All Tags

Neeleman's Newest Carrier Takes Off

Start applying for those visas: David Neeleman's newest blue airline, Azul, is now flying in Brazil. The first flight left Viracopos-Campinas International near Sao Paulo for Salvador de Bahia on Monday, and the carrier now has five planes in service. Neeleman promises to have 42 E-190s and -195s flying by 2012, all kitted out with seatback TVs and leather seats.

Besides the live TV, which won't be switched on until late 2009, there are other similarities to JetBlue: Azul jets will have extra legroom in the front of the plane, available for R$30 ($13). Snacks, though, will be free and served out of a basket carried through the cabin.

Azul only flies to Curitiba, Porto Alegre, Salvador, "Sao Paulo" and Vitoria right now, but plans call for service to 25 cities with 16 planes by the end of 2009.

A one-way flight between Viracopos and Porto Alegre will cost you R$374 ($157) all-in and takes just 90 minutes. You can do the same trip on a bus for around 50 bucks; it'll take you 18 hours.

Related Stories:
· Azul [Official Site]
· All You Ever Wanted To Know About Azul [Jaunted]
· Neeleman's Azul Cleared To Fly In Brazil [Jaunted]

Tags: Adventures of Link / Travel Media / Joe Sharkey / → All Tags

"The Devil at 37,000 Feet"

The main event--for us anyway--in the January issue of Vanity Fair* is a piece called "The Devil at 37,000 Feet," about the incredible mid-air collision over Brazil in 2006 that killed 154 people and sucked survivor and aviation journalist Joe Sharkey into an incredible vortex of storytelling, xenophobia and international finger pointing. William Langewiesche, who is, in an interview about the article on vanityfair.com, cooler than the other side of Barack Obama's pillow, wrote the piece.

Perhaps garnering as much attention as the story itself are the cockpit tapes from both aircraft, hosted on the magazine's website. While VF says the voice recordings are newsworthy, the International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations says such use of cockpit voice recordings "for public entertainment" is an outrage.

* Owned, like Jaunted, by Conde Nast.

Related Stories:
· The Devil at 37,000 Feet [VF]
· The Recordings from the Gol Boeing 737 [VF, MP3]
· The Recordings from the ExcelAire N600XL [VF, MP3]
· Pilots Outraged by Release of Recordings [AP, via Google]
· 2006 Travel Awards: Joe Sharkey for the Best Travel Media Story of the Year [Jaunted]

[Rendering of the collision: Wikimedia]

Tags: New Airlines / Azul / David Neeleman / Embraer / → All Tags

All You Ever Wanted To Know About Azul

A Jaunted Exclusive

Is it just us, or does there seem to be next to no information out there about David Neeleman's new airline Azul? You know, the one that could launch next month and shake up the entire South American aviation market?

Turns out, there's plenty of dirt; it's just that it's all in Portuguese. So we decided to dust off our academic caps and--with the help of Google--translate the lengthy FAQ about the new carrier posted on its official website. While we're not sure if these "questions" were posed before or after financial panic gripped the planet, here are the highlights:

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Tags: New Airlines / Azul / David Neeleman / Embraer / → All Tags

Neeleman's Azul Cleared To Fly In Brazil

A Brazilian aviation official says that David Neeleman's slightly mysterious, potentially awesome airline Azul has been government certified, clearing the way for an on-time first flight in December.

According to the Associated Press:

Azul has yet to inform Brazilian regulators of the routes it intends to fly, [an aviation] agency spokeswoman said, but it is expected to begin with the Rio de Janeiro-Sao Paulo route and expand from there.

The airline hopes to quickly make inroads into Brazil's market with low-price tickets and features such as leather seats and in-flight live satellite television.

The airline already has at least one jet ready to fly, which means we're now obsessively refreshing Azul's website, hoping to get the early word on destinations and prices as soon as tickets are available.

Related Stories:
· Brazil Approves Azul Airlines [AP, via IHT]
· New Airlines: Azul's Livery Revealed [Jaunted]

[Photo: Azul]

Tags: Amazing-Race-13 / Amazing Race 13 / Chasing Racers / Television Travel / TV Travel / → All Tags

Amazing Race 13: Do You Like American Candy?

Chasing Racers is back, with a brand new Amazing Race 13 mashup. This map will update the morning after every new episode. Send along tips, rumors, gossip, locations and spoilers to our map editors, become a member and comment on the stories below and add to the Jaunted-Flickr photo pool to get in on the fray.

Remember to zoom in, out and around on the map--with so much happening in each episode, it's easy to miss a map point.

Welcome back, race fans! When last we left our favorite racers, they were on a mandatory rest period in Salvador, Brazil. We're down to just ten teams, having given the beekeeping hippies the old heave-ho.

Will Nick and Starr continue to dominate with their athleticism and mental prowess? Will struggling exes, Ken and Tina, make a breakthrough in their relationship? Can Ken control his wandering eye, or will Tina just poke it out with a sharp stick?

Most importantly, who will manage to make it to this week's Pit Stop and get that much closer to the million bucks?

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Tags: David Neeleman / New Airlines / Airlines / Embraer / Azul / Brazil Travel / → All Tags

Neeleman's Azul May Fly Before '09

Last we heard, the new Brazilian carrier Azul, from JetBlue founder David Neeleman, was planning to start flights in January 2009. But an article we just came across on the Dow Jones Newswire (but sadly can't link to 'cause of a pay wall) says the airline is looking to move that first flight up to December 2008.

The report continues:

"They (Azul) talked to us and managed to bring forward the delivery of three or four planes from January 2009 to December of this year," said Embraer CEO Frederico Fleury Curado.

Azul has ordered 76 Embraer 190 and 195s and it has also agreed to lease two of the mid-sized planes from JetBlue. So far only one has the Azul livery: It's been named "O Rio de Janeiro continua Azul," a line from a Gilberto Gil song.

Oh, and by the way, another news report (linked below) says Azul is interested in building an airport in Sao Paulo. We're not holding our breath on that one!

Related Stories:
· Azul Wants to Build an Airport [El Mundo, in Spanish]
· Azul coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Azul]