Originally Posted by
WHBM
Just to chip in here, the fourth city (and country) on the original BUA routing was Montevideo in Uruguay. Sao Paolo in those days didn't have an airport capable of handling long-haul jets, and it was normal for a Brazilian carrier to operate a connecting aircraft from Rio. Meanwhile Montevideo was a significant commercial point in those days, and several UK businesses had commercial contacts there. There was a considerable meat import business from Uruguay to Britain by ship at the time. Surprising how things change.
Lisbon or Madrid ? Well, BUA used to stop off at either, alternately, to try and pick up some extra traffic. They also stopped at Las Palmas in the Canary Islands before crossing the Atlantic. A later schedule change introduced faster one-stop services from London to Buenos Aires, which stopped halfway at Freetown in Sierra Leone, West Africa, an established BUA point (BUA had a half-share in local carrier Sierra Leone Airways).
Absolutely spot on,
WHBM! But then again, we would expect nothing less, sir!
And the connecting flights to and from Sao Paulo via Rio De Janeiro were indeed handled by a Brazilian airline at this time, being VASP with "special" Vickers Viscount turboprop service.