Gol Transportes Aéreos
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| Founded | 2000 | |||
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| Hubs | Congonhas Int'l Airport Belo Horizonte Int'l Airport Rio de Janeiro Int'l Airport Brasília International Airport |
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| Secondary hubs | Santos Dumont Airport Florianópolis Int'l Airport Guarulhos Int'l Airport Porto Alegre Int'l Airport |
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| Frequent flyer program | Smiles | |||
| Fleet size | 113 (+181 orders) | |||
| Destinations | 64 | |||
| Company slogan | Aqui todo mundo pode voar.(Here everybody can fly.) | |||
| Parent company | Grupo Áurea | |||
| Headquarters | São Paulo, Brazil | |||
| Key people | Constantino de Oliveira, Junior | |||
| Website | www.voegol.com | |||
Gol Transportes Aéreos ("Gol Air Transport," NYSE: GOL) is a Brazilian airline based in São Paulo, Brazil. Gol is the second largest airline in Brazil with 38.6% of the Brazilian domestic market and 12.2% of the international market of flights from and to Brazil as of September 2007. It owns the former national airline Varig and operates a growing domestic and international scheduled network. Its main hubs are São Paulo's Congonhas International Airport, Rio de Janeiro's Galeão International Airport and Brasília International Airport - Presidente Juscelino Kubitschek. Gol also has focus operations at Rio de Janeiro's Santos Dumont Airport, São Paulo's Guarulhos International Airport and Porto Alegre's Salgado Filho International Airport.
Gol refers to itself as Gol Intelligent Airlines[1] (Gol Linhas aéreas inteligentes in Portuguese) as a slogan. The company is traded on the New York Stock Exchange as "GOL Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes S.A."[2] "Gol", in Portuguese and Spanish, translates into "goal" in English.[3]
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[edit] History
The airline was established in 2000 and started operations on January 15, 2001. It is a subsidiary of the Brazilian conglomerate Grupo Áurea, which has other transport interests including Brazil's largest long-distance bus company. Grupo Áurea in turn is owned by the Constantino family. As of 2004, Gol had carried 11,600,000 passengers, and constituted 20% of the Brazilian air travel market.[citation needed]
On June 24, 2004 Gol launched simultaneous initial public offerings on the New York and São Paulo stock exchanges. It is now owned by AeroPar Participações (77%), Venture (17.6%) and American International Group (5.4%) and employs 5,456 staff (at March 2007).[4] The growth in Gol's stock price made the Constantino family a member of the Forbes Magazine billionaire list in 2005 .
In 2007, Gol was supposed to begin a code-share agreement with TAP Portugal, opening the European market to the Brazilian airline, and the internal Brazilian market to the Portuguese airline (the largest foreign airline in Brazil). TAP Portugal instead chose to cooperate with TAM Airlines (TAM Linhas Aéreas).[5]
On March 28, 2007 Gol officially purchased part of the remains of VARIG, VRG Linhas Aéreas or informally known as "new Varig", a new airline that owned the brand Varig, for US$320 million from Volo Group and MatlinPatterson Global Opportunies hedge fund. At that time "old Varig" was under bankruptcy protection.
Gol announced that the brand VARIG would continue doing business and operating as Varig rather than its official name VRG Linhas Aéreas.[6] The transaction, via its GTI subsidiary, required a US$98 million cash payment, with the balance through the allocation of non-voting shares to VARIG Logística and Volo which had acquired VARIG in June 2006 for US$24 million.[7] The transaction did not involve the original airline, informally known as "old Varig", which continues to exist under the name Flex Linhas Aéreas.
In 2009 Gol was merged into VRG Linhas Aéreas. VRG Linhas Aéreas thus is an airline that operates two brands: Gol and Varig, although in reality flights are operated only under Gol flight numbers.
Because of contractual obligations since 2006 "new Varig" (VRG Linhas Aéreas) is obliged to purchase a minimum of 140 hours/month of services from "old Varig" (Flex Linhas Aéreas). Therefore, presently, some of VRG Linhas Aéreas flights operated with Gol flight numbers are actually flown with chartered aircraft from Flex Linhas Aéreas.
[edit] Destinations
[edit] Fleet
The Gol Transportes Aéreos fleet consits of the following aircraft (at 30 September 2009):[8]
| Aircraft | In Service |
Orders | Routes | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boeing 737-300 | 10 | 0 | Medium haul Regional |
3 for BRA Transportes Aéreos Replacement aircraft: Boeing 737-700 |
| Boeing 737-700 | 42 | 31 | Medium haul Regional |
Replacing: Boeing 737-300 Will get new cabin in 2010 |
| Boeing 737-800 | 60 | 150 | Short-long haul | Will get new cabin in 2010[9] |
| Total | 112 | 181 |
[edit] Incidents and accidents
On 29 September 2006, Flight 1907, a Boeing 737-800 SFP(Short Field Performance) with registration PR-GTD disappeared from radar while flying over the center-western state of Mato Grosso en route from Manaus to Brasília to Rio de Janeiro. The aircraft collided in mid-air with an Embraer Legacy 600 business jet, near the town of Matupá,[10][11] 470 miles (760 km) south of Manaus.[12] The Legacy jet landed safely at a Brazilian Air Force base with damage to the tail and left winglet. Gol has confirmed that 148 passengers and 6 crew members were on board. The wreckage was found in the Amazon, and there were no survivors.[13]
[edit] Gallery
 A Gol 737-322 |
 A Gol 737-8BK |
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Gol Transportes Aéreos |
- Gol Transportes Aéreos
- Gol Transportes Aéreos (Portuguese)
- Smiles
- Gollog (Cargo service) (Portuguese) (Spanish)
[edit] References
- ^ Home Page (International), Gol Transportes Aéreos. January 4, 2007. Retrieved on June 14, 2009.
- ^ "GOL Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes S.A.," NYSE Euronext
- ^ "Brazilian airline flying high doing everything on the cheap," Deseret News
- ^ "Directory: World Airlines". Flight International: p. 87. 2007-04-03.
- ^ Avionews http://www.avionews.com/index.php?corpo=see_news_home.php&news_id=1075945&pagina_chiamante=index.php
- ^ Former Brazilian Flagship Airline Bought 28 March 2007
- ^ Jackson Flores (2007-04-03). "Brazil's Gol nets ailing Varig successor". Flight International: p. 8.
- ^ Gol Transportes Aéreos Fleet
- ^ GOL aircraft to get new cabin
- ^ matupá, brazil Google Maps
- ^ Avião da Gol Desaparece na Região de Matupá, em Mato Grosso Globo
- ^ Embraer divulga nota sobre acidente que envolveu uma da suas aeronaves O Globo Online
- ^ Rescuers find no survivors in Brazilian plane wreckage CNN
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