Gol Linhas Aéreas
GOL Linhas Aéreas S.A is a Brazilian low cost airline based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. According to the National Civil Aviation Agency of Brazil (ANAC), between January and December 2019, GOL had 37.7% of the domestic and 3.8% of the international market shares in terms of passenger-kilometers flown, making it the largest domestic and third largest international airline in Brazil.
The airline was established in 2000 as GOL Transportes Aéreos S.A. and started operations on 15 January 2001 with a flight from Brasília to São Paulo. It is a subsidiary of the Brazilian conglomerate Grupo Áurea, based in Minas Gerais state, which has other transportation interests, including Brazil's largest long-distance bus company. Grupo Áurea in turn is owned by the Constantino family. Constantino Júnior was responsible for building the business next to the vice president of the company, David Barioni. In 2007, GOL was owned by AeroPar Participações (75.5%), Venture (17.6%), American International Group (5.4%) and Air France-KLM (1.5%). 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). Instead, TAP Portugal chose to cooperate with TAM Airlines.
Purchase of Varig
On 28 March 2007, GOL officially purchased part of the assets of VARIG - VRG Linhas Aéreas, informally known as the "new Varig," a new company that owned the Varig brand, for US$320 million from Volo Group and MatlinPatterson Global Opportunities hedge fund. At that time, the "old Varig" was under bankruptcy protection. GOL Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA posted a first-quarter loss of 3.5 million Reais (2 million US dollars) after revenues of 1.6 billion Reais (one billion US dollars). GOL announced that the Varig brand would continue doing business operating as such, rather than its official name VRG Linhas Aéreas. 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. The transaction did not involve the original airline, informally known as "old Varig," which continued to exist until its bankruptcy in mid-2010 under the name Flex Linhas Aéreas.
Purchase of Webjet Linhas Aéreas
On 9 July 2011, VRG Linhas Aéreas, owner of the brands GOL and Varig, announced the intention to purchase full control of WebJet Linhas Aéreas. The purchase contract was signed on 2 August 2011. On 10 October 2012, the purchase received its final approval with some operational restrictions from the Brazilian regulatory agency. Services were integrated but both companies continued to operate independently for some weeks. Integration started on 17 October 2012 when sales requested via Webjet's web-portal started to be redirected to GOL's site. However, on 23 November 2012, Webjet abruptly ceased to operate and all services were incorporated by GOL. The Webjet brand ceased to exist. GOL also announced its intention to return all of Webjet's Boeing 737-300s to lessors until the end of the first quarter of 2013. There was no mention to the fate of Webjet's 737-800s.
Partnership with TwoFlex
On 12 April 2019, GOL announced an adapted Essential Air Service partnership with TwoFlex in which the latter would operate feeder services on behalf of GOL in the States of Amazonas, Pará and Mato Grosso using the Cessna 208 Caravan. The flights are marketed by GOL in its reservation platform but operated by TwoFlex and integrated into the network of GOL. This partnership greatly increased the number of GOL destinations in these three States. However, on 14 January 2020, Azul Brazilian Airlines signed an agreement to purchase Twoflex. On 27 March 2020, the Brazilian regulatory bodies gave the nihil obstat to the purchase and sale of flights started on 14 April 2020 thus ending the partnership.
Purchase of MAP Linhas Aéreas
On 8 June 2021, GOL Linhas Aéreas announced the purchase of MAP Linhas Aéreas from Voepass Linhas Aéreas. The transaction included 26 slots at São Paulo–Congonhas Airport belonging to MAP and Voepass. MAP's Amazonian operations and much of its fleet would be transferred to Voepass.
Operational agreement with Voepass
Between August 2021 and May 2023, GOL and Voepass had an operational agreement in which the latter operated certain routes for the former.
The key trends for GOL are (as of the financial year ending 31 December):
As of October 2025, GOL Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes serves the following destinations: Additionally, GOL operates dedicated executive bus services between São Paulo airports for its passengers and affiliate airlines:
Codeshare agreements
GOL has codeshare agreements with the following airlines:
Current fleet
GOL operated an all-Boeing 737 fleet until 2026, when it ordered five Airbus A330-900:
Smiles is GOL/Varig's Frequent-flyer program since 20 July 2006. Points can be used for services from GOL/Varig, and partners Aerolíneas Argentinas, Aeromexico, Air Canada, Air Europa, Air France, Alitalia, American Airlines, Avianca, British Airways, Copa Airlines, Emirates, Etihad, Iberia, KLM, Qatar Airways and TAP Air Portugal, including flights, upgrades, holidays, hotel stays and car rentals. Smiles was part of the "new Varig" package bought by GOL, which honored all miles and eventually became its own frequent-flyer program. Previously GOL had no such program.[citation needed] On a study conducted in 2011, Smiles ranked third among 24 chosen frequent flyer programs, with 97.1% success of requests made. In 2013, Smiles was spun off as an independent company eventually leading to its IPO at BOVESPA in April 2013.
