Following its principle to always fulfill the most strict quality, efficiency and comfort criteria, VARIG also increases its fleet with aircrafts most adequate to Brazilian needs and characteristics and also to international market. According to this philosophy in 1981 VARIG incorporated to its fleet the Boeing 747: the biggest commercial aircraft in Western world. The first wide-body B747, PP-VNA and PP-VNB, started operations on February 1981, serving Rio-New York line. The third, PP-VNC, arrived on March 20, already bringing passengers from the United States. The B747-200 also operated in Rio de Janeiro - Paris and Rio de Janeiro – Frankfurt routes.

Boeing 747 was an instant hit among passengers. At that time commercial aviation was divided between the airlines that operated the "Jumbo" and the rest. VARIG had been studying the incorporation of B747 since the 1970s, but the demand for passengers in Brazil was not large enough to justify an aircraft capable of carrying more than 300 passengers. In the first configuration adopted by VARIG, B747 carried only 238 passengers, 17 more passengers than the DC-10, as the Boeing 747 were combi version. The difference was that VARIG also equipped its B747s with cargo pallets. Initially VARIG's First Class was on the upper deck, but later it was transferred to the main deck, on the nose of the aircraft.

In April 1987 VARIG received the fourth Boeing 747-200, PP-VNW, which came from South African Airways and operated at VARIG only until August 1988. The fourth unit was the only one equipped with Pratt & Whitney engines. The other three, purchased directly from the Boeing plant, were equipped with General Electric engines.

With the arrival of new versions (300 and 400), the Boeing 747-200 were taken out of service in the 1990s. PP-VNA and PP-VNB stopped operating in June and PP-VNC in August 1996. They all started to operate for Air Hong Kong as freighters.

Vic Parisi