Any reason why these aren't going full throttle?
With the exception of Shanghai, Virgin cherry pick BA's better performing routes and go in after BA has built up the market. In the US it was a good BA and VS versus poor products on the US legacies. However that's changing with BA/AA ATI and Delta and Continental arriving at LHR in 2008. If Virgin launched Rio, they're going against BA in Oneworld and also a strong home carrier with TAM in STAR. Both carriers are in alliances and can clain home advantage at one end, something VS would not be able to do. As these are emerging markets, Virgin may also not have the pockets to take the losses over 2-3 years while the market matures and settles into profit. TAM has reduced Rio-London to thrice weekly for the winter so it's not a gold mine just yet, even LHR-China direct is not that big, or I understand that profitable yet.