Appologies for the delay in this post - unfortunately, not enough posting is made in this forum for me to check it often enough. However, as I have just returned from Salvador I would like to answer the above question...

There are now no UK charter flights that serve Brazil on a regular basis. Thomson used to fly into Natal, whilst First Choice and (formerly) MyTravel used to fly into Salvador. However, there are still very good deals to be had. I bought my ticket to Sao Paulo with Air France for just over £400. I bought it quite far in advance and had to keep a close eye on all the travel agents and tour operator websites. On this occasion I made the purchase with Expedia. I travelled in January, which is the Brazilian holiday period. If you do go at this time of year, just be careful that you don't travel too close to Carnival time to avoid paying above the odds for your hotel (unless you want to enjoy the festival itself of course).

From Rio and Sao Paulo, there are may cheap deals on Brazilian airlines to be had. Check out the websites for the following companies: Gol, Tam, Azul, Webjet. I flew with the latter for a very reasonable price. In fact, the owner of this airline is also, I am told, the owner of a pactage tour company in Brazil and the airline appears to offer some very good deals to beach destinations such as Salvador. However, it is definitely worthwhile checking out all of the airlines. Be warned though to check the payment options before trying to make a purchase. I had no problem this time but was sometimes limited to using an Amex card (these cards can easily be obtained for free now in the UK).

In a way, it was quite nice to be the only English person in the hotel I was staying at. Most people were in fact Brazilian - from Sao Paulo, to be precise. However, there were also people from Argentina, Spain, Germany, Austria and other parts of South America. I know Condor fly into Salvador, hence the German market, so you may be able to get reasonably-priced flights with them. Although I believe it would be much less hassle to simply organize scheduled flights from the UK via the continent or London lest you should find yourself being delayed on one of your connecting flights.

If anybody would like any more info about flights in Brazil, or even just a bit of advice then please feel free to PM me for a quick response.

I always fly with TAP when I go to Brazil, specifically Salvador.. But if you're looking for packages my advice is to research on the internet for accommodation and flights... Don't get bored, because if you go to an agency they charge you about extra £100 because they're doing this job for you... You don't see they charge that, but if you gather all the values together (accomodation + flights) you'll see the difference.
A flight to Salvador, in my opinion, shouldn't be more expensive or not even the same price as Sao Paulo or Rio. The city is much closer to the UK... if you go straight from here, you arrive there in about 7 hrs.