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Gol Transportes Aéreos
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Gol Transportes Aéreos 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 Varig airline 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.
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Encyclopedia
Gol Transportes Aéreos 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 Varig airline 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 (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." "Gol" translates into "goal" in Portuguese and Spanish.
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.
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). 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).
On March 28, 2007 Gol officially purchased the bankrupt remains of Varig - VRG for US$320 million from the Volo Group and MatlinPatterson Global Opportunies hedge fund. Gol announced that Varig will continue doing business and operating as Varig rather than its current VRG name. The transaction, via its GTI subsidiary, requires 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.
Destinations
Destinations in Brazil
North region
Central-West region
Northeast region
Southeast region
South region
International destinations
South America
All codes are IATA
Services
Gol uses web-based flight booking, and paperless tickets for flight booking.
On aircraft, Gol serves cereal bars, juice and soft drinks; no alcohol is served.
Fleet
Gol Fleet | Aircraft | Total | Passengers | Routes | Notes |
|---|
| Boeing 737-300 | 9 | | Medium haul
Regional | Replacement aircraft: Boeing 737-700 | | Boeing 737-700 | 27
(40 orders for Gol and Varig) | | Medium haul
Regional | Replacing: Boeing 737-300
2 from EasyJet | | Boeing 737-800 | 44
(161 orders) | | Short-long haul | |
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. The aircraft collided in mid-air with an Embraer Legacy 600 business jet, near the town of Matupá, south of Manaus. 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.
Gallery
External links
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