VARIG (Viação Aérea Rio-Grandense, 'Rio Grandean Airways') was the first airline founded in Brazil, in 1927. From 1965 until 1990, it was Brazil's leading airline and virtually its only international one. In 2005, Varig went into judicial restructuring, and in 2006 it was split into two companies: Flex Linhas Aéreas, informally known as "old" Varig, heir to the original airline, now defunct; and "new" Varig, a new company, fully integrated into Gol Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes.

Sociedade Anônima Empresa de Viação Aérea Rio-Grandense – VARIG was the first national airline established in Brazil. It was founded on 7 May 1927, in Porto Alegre, by Otto Ernst Meyer-Labastille, a German aviator decorated in World War I, who immigrated to Brazil in 1921 and noticed how necessary air transportation was for a large country like Brazil. Varig was an off-spring of the German trade company and airline Condor Syndikat, thus sharing the same origin as Syndicato Condor, later renamed Serviços Aéreos Cruzeiro do Sul. Condor Syndikat gave the initial operational and financial support, and for a short time Varig and the sister-company Syndicato Condor operated in partnership.

The first aircraft of VARIG was a ten-passenger Dornier Do J Wal flying boat, transferred from the assets of Condor Syndikat. This aircraft, named Atlântico, was also the first aircraft registered in Brazil as P-BAAA. Operations started on 22 June 1927 with a flight from Porto Alegre to Rio Grande via Pelotas. Varig inherited the route rights from Condor Syndikat which since 22 February 1927 had operated the service.

VARIG slowly but consistently in spite of difficulties added aircraft and destinations to its network initially focusing on the state of Rio Grande do Sul. On 5 August 1942, Varig began its first international route from Porto Alegre to Montevideo using its de Havilland DH 89 Dragon Rapide.

In 1941, as the United States declared war against the Axis and joined the Allies in the conflict, aviation supplies became scarce, particularly in terms of petrol and replacement parts. Because it used mostly German equipment and had a German manager-director (president), Varig faced particular difficulties. For this reason, Varig's first manager-director Otto Ernst Meyer resigned on 24 December 1941 and shareholders decided that the next manager-director had to be a native-born Brazilian. Érico de Assis Brasil was chosen but he died on an aircraft accident shortly after. It was in 1943 that Varig's first employee, Ruben Martin Berta, a descendant of Hungarian and German grandparents, was chosen as manager-director, a post he would retain until his death in 1966.

One of the first decisions of Ruben Berta was to pursue an expansion plan and to unify the fleet around only one type of aircraft. The chosen one was the Lockheed L-10 Electra. Another ground-breaking suggestion was made on 29 October 1945, when, based on social ideas found on the papal encyclicals Rerum novarum and Quadragesimo anno and on Jean-Jacques Rousseau's The Social Contract, Berta proposed and the assembly approved the transfer of 50% of Varig's shares to a not-for-profit foundation belonging to the employees. The aim of the foundation was to provide health, financial, social and recreational benefits to its employees. Decades later, this foundation would be called Fundação Ruben Berta [pt].

In 1946, with the addition of Douglas DC-3 and later the Curtiss C-46 to its fleet, Varig was able to greatly increase its network by adding cities in the states of Santa Catarina, Paraná, São Paulo, and Rio de Janeiro, facing fierce competition with Real Transportes Aéreos and SAVAG. On 29 February 1952, Varig bought Aero Geral, a small airline with concessions to fly from Natal to Santos. With this purchase, Varig greatly enlarged its operations in Brazil, extending services beyond Rio de Janeiro to Natal along the Brazilian coast and was thus better prepared to compete with Panair do Brasil and Cruzeiro do Sul. In 1949, the Brazilian government granted Varig the concession to fly to the United States, since the original airline that had the concession, Cruzeiro do Sul, was unable to operate the services. The inaugural flight between Rio de Janeiro–Galeão and New York–Idlewild (later renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport) was on 2 August 1955. The services were operated using three new Lockheed L-1049G Super Constellations. On 30 May 1953, flights to Buenos Aires using Curtiss C-46s started. In January 1956, Varig served 55 cities in Brazil and four abroad, being the second Brazilian airline in terms of passengers transported.

In 1954, sensing the need for more modern aircraft, new Convair 240s were purchased. The addition of the Lockheed Super Constellation and the Convair 240 provoked a deep change of mentality in the culture of Varig, with the introduction of a more cosmopolitan corporate image that would remain until 1996.