January 11, 2014

Brazil hopes to welcome 600,000 foreign visitors during the World Cup, which is also expected to draw three million Brazilians. AFP Relaxnews pic, January 11, 2014. Football fans daunted by rising airfares in Brazil during this year's World Cup would be smart to steel their nerves just a little longer as relief may be around the corner.

Next week Brazil is expected to authorise some 1,500 new domestic flights, expanding travel options between cities hosting games in June and July.

Tourists should see a wave of new routes open up and a bit of reprieve from soaring prices.

That could also ease tensions between Brazil's government and local airlines, who have faced repeated threats of intervention if price increases get out of hand.

Brazil's domestic aviation industry, the third-largest in the world, has come under intense scrutiny as one of the biggest potential embarrassments of the tournament.

With a dozen host cities scattered around the vast country, millions of fans are expected to stream from one overcrowded airport to the next during the month-long event.

Prices have spiked as demand overwhelmed domestic networks since world soccer body FIFA determined in December where the 32 teams will play their first round of matches.

Fans trying to follow neighboring Argentina from their Rio de Janeiro opener to their second game in Belo Horizonte, for instance, have seen the cheapest tickets double in price.

With Brazil's reputation as a rising global power on the line, President Dilma Rousseff is anxious to pull off a smooth World Cup, the first held in South America's soccer powerhouse since 1950.

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