If you are not the owner of a private jet, a yacht, a sailing boat, hot-air balloon, submarine or other extravagant toys, you have to rely on the conservative method of a scheduled flight.

I discourage taking alternatives like supply ships.
Those who like to take only a short glance at Noronha my consider the "Pacifik". The Pacific is a cruise liner that offers several tours that include the archipelago. There are several possibilities, starting from short trips "Recife - Noronha - Recife" in 3 days up to "Fortaleza - Noronha - Recife - Natal - Fortaleza" in 7 days for the nice price of R$2.028,42.
In this case you'll only have one day shore leave to Noronha and have to go back aboard when the ships horn destroys the idyll. You'll spend the night aboard at a tea dance and all you're left with is blowing a good-bye kiss to Noronha the next morning.

A further alternative - sailing to Noronha on a 35 feet catamaran - was smashed at the 21st of January 2007, when the 15.10 meter carbon mast of my Seaqueen broke only 10 sm before reaching Noronha, caused by a bad shackle that turned out to be imported from Asia. Other technical difficulties made me then drift towards the Caribbean. After a slight feeling of distress, the "Hamburg-Süd" saved me, but I lost my boat - no risk, no fun! Fortunately, nobody was hurt (apart from myself financially).

However, there is another possibility of sailing to Noronha. A friend of mine, Christoph, german engineer owns in Joao Passoa, about 150 km north of Recife a guesthouse and a very nice 42 feet catamaran called Orca. For such a vessel eats a lot of money, he earns some by fishing with Orca and sometimes he leaves guests. Cause I had been sometimes asked from visitors of my site whether there is no possibility to sail to Noronha, I spoke with Chris about this. "...if I sail to Noronha or anywhere else doesn't matter...". Chris sails you on his luxury Cat wherever you want in Northbrasil, also to Noronha or from Noronha to the continent. The trip to Noronha is normaly taking two days and leaves the passengers with the wish the journey had taken 2 weeks instead of 2 days - easy living! I know what I'm taking from - just writing this on Orca, course south to Salvador, blue sky, half wind, speed 8 kn, Carlos Santana is playing "Samba Pa Ti" and the just catched dorade is fritting in the pan.

If you want to know more about Chris and the Orca click here.
Vacancy at 07.7.09 or 18.8.09 to Noronha and 09.7.09 or 20.8.09 back

Now back to the scheduled flights. Currently there are two air lines going to Noronha: Varig and Trip.
As mentioned before, prices are extraordinarily expensive for Brazil. Varig demands for Recife - Noronha - Recife currently 955,20 R$, Trip 1.019,20 R$ and for Natal - Noronha - Natal 895,20 R$.

Varig flies with a Boeing 737 from Recife scheduled at 1:50 pm to Noronha. The plane has 120 sears and usually there are vacancies (with exceptions, e.g., before new year). As the plane recently flies Rio-Recife-Noronha and back you'll have to anticipate delays (happens regularly). This is especially important for the return flight, that is scheduled to 4:10 pm (the last time I flew it left at 6 pm), when you need to catch connecting flights. It usually takes 55 minutes

Trip flies with an ATR 42, from Natal (11 am) and Recife (1:50 pm) to Noronha. I guess 42 means the number of seats. The flight back to Natal is scheduled to 5:20 pm, to Recife at 12:35 am. The traveling time is usually 1 hour 25 minutes to Recife and 1 hour 10 minutes to Natal

Please take into account that Noronha has its own time zone. In Noronha it is one hour later than in Recife or Natal

For the proud owners of a private yacht, please pay attention to the fact that Noronha asks for a anchorage. It depends on the LOA (length over all), was increased in the beginning of 2008 and is 34,48 R$ up to 5 meters, 51,73 R$ up to 10 m and above that 137,95 R$ per day. This is in addition to the TPA and pretty expensive considering that you're just allowed to anchor without getting water or electricity. Unfortunately there are less and less sailer since this fee raised. Once, Noronha was a popular stop for those crossing the Atlantic, as the trip between the Cabo Verde islands and Noronha is the shortest way across.

Fans of sailing or sailors themselves should be interested in an event that takes place every year in September. The Regatta Recife - Fernando de Noronha, that is hosted by the Cabanga-Yacht Club, attracts a lot of sailing boats to the islands. Some owners are willing to take paying guests with them. In 2007 56 boats came and the winner was, like in every year, the Adrenalina, which is an "Open 50 - Rennkat" owned by a banker in Salvador, that did the 545 km in 14 hours (that's an average of about 40 km/h!).