Gol Transportes Aéreos

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Gol Linhas Aéreas

IATA G3	ICAO GLO	Callsign Gol
Founded		2000
Hubs		Congonhas Domestic Airport Santos Dumont Airport Galeão International Airport Brasília international Airport Salvador Airport Fortaleza Airport Porto Alegre Airport Recife International Airport Curitiba Airport
Frequent flyer program		None
Member lounge		None
Alliance		None
Fleet size		54
Destinations		52
Headquarters		São Paulo, Brazil
Key people		Constantino Oliveira Júnior
Website: http://www.voegol.com.br

Gol Transportes Aéreos is a low-cost airline based in São Paulo, Brazil. Gol is the second largest airline in Brazil with 37% of the Brazilian domestic market and 11% of the international market as of August 2006. It operates a growing domestic and international scheduled network. Its main bases are Congonhas Domestic Airport, São Paulo and Santos Dumont Regional Airport, Rio de Janeiro. Gol also has hubs at Galeão - Antônio Carlos Jobim International Airport, Rio de Janeiro, Brasília International Airport, Salvador Airport, Fortaleza Airport, Porto Alegre Airport, Guararapes International Airport, Recife and Afonso Pena International Airport, Curitiba.

1 History
2 Services
3 Fleet
4 Accidents
5 References
6 External links

[edit] History

The airline was established in 2000 and started operations on 15 January 2001. It is a subsidiary of the Brazilian conglomerate Grupo Aurea, which has other transport interests including Brazil's largest long-distance bus company. Grupo Aurea in turn is owned by the Constantino family. Gol's unprecedented low fares revolutionized the domestic Brazilian air travel market. As of 2004, Gol had carried 11,600,000 passengers, and constituted 20% of the Brazilian air travel market. On 24 June 2004 Gol launched simultaneous initial public offerings on the New York and Sao Paulo stock exchanges. It is now owned by AeroPar Participações (77%), Venture (17.6%) and American International Group (5.4%) and employs 7,250 staff. The growth in Gol's stock price made the Constantino family a member of the Forbes Magazine billionaire list in 2005.

[edit] Services

Gol operates services to the following scheduled domestic destinations (as of May 2006): Belém, Belo Horizonte, Boa Vista, Brasília, Campinas, Campina Grande, Campo Grande, Caxias do Sul, Cuiabá, Curitiba, Florianópolis, Fortaleza, Goiânia, Iguazu Falls, Joinville, Londrina, Macapá, Maceió, Manaus, Maringá, Natal, Navegantes, Palmas, Petrolina, Porto Alegre, Porto Seguro, Porto Velho, Recife, Ribeirão Preto, Rio Branco, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Santarém, São Luís, São Paulo, Teresina, Uberlândia and Vitória.

International scheduled destinations: Asunción, Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Montevideo, Panama City (Code-share agreement with Copa Airlines), Rosario, Santa Cruz de la Sierra and Santiago. Gol has received approval to initiate operations to Lima, Mexico, and a Code-share agreement with TACA to San Salvador. Rumors have that negotiations are under way for its own route to Panama City as well as to Caracas, Bogotá and Aruba.

[edit] Fleet

Gol's fleet consists exclusively of 54 Boeing 737 aircraft (as of September 2006) and an average fleet age of 9.3 years (as of August 2006):

14 Boeing 737-300
27 Boeing 737-700
9 Boeing 737-800
4 Boeing 737-800 SFP (Short-Field Performance)

The 737-800 SFP (Short-Field Performance) is a special new version of the 737-800 specially designed by Boeing for Gol suited to operate from Rio De Janeiro - Santos Dumont (SDU). Its engines are rated at 28000 pounds each and it has various modifications on several components such as the landing gear, brakes and flaps, which allow for approach speeds similar to those on the 737-700. This version is able to carry 189 passengers.

The first 737-800 SFP (737-8EH), PR-GTA, was delivered in July 30, 2006 and bears the markings "Flagship", a reference for it being the first of its kind, and "Time De Aguias" (Team of Eagles).

With the announcement on October 30, 2006 that it was increasing the number of firm orders from 67 to 87 and adding 20 options, Gol has an outstanding order for 121 Boeing 737s, most of them of the 737-800 SFP Model.

Gol's planned fleet for the upcoming years is:

Year	737-300	737-700	737-800	Total
2006	12	30	20	62
2007	12	30	33	75
2008	10	28	43	81
2009	3	27	54	84
2010	0	26	62	88
2011	0	23	69	92
2012	0	20	76	96

Gol's fleet plan appears to be in a current state of flux due to troubles at the former major Brazilian airline Varig. Gol has made arrangements to take over two 737-700s, two 737-800s, and an unknown number of 737-300s grounded by Varig due to lack of funds.

[edit] Accidents

On 29 September 2006, Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907, a Boeing 737-800 with registration PR-GTD disappeared from radar while flying over the centre-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,^[1]^[2] 470 miles south of Manaus.^[3] 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.^[4]

Thus far, it has been found that:^[5]

The control tower at São José dos Campos authorized the Legacy to fly at a 37,000 feet altitude, which put it in collision route with Flight 1907
The Legacy's transponder stopped working
The Legacy lost communication with Cindacta-1 (Brasília's air traffic control center)
The control tower failed to warn Flight 1907 about the Legacy's presence

The aircraft, a new Short Field Performance variant^[6]^[7] of the 737-800 model had been delivered to Gol on September 12, 2006.^[8]^[9]