GOL Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA (Public, NYSE:GOL) is a low-fare, low-cost airline based in São Paulo, Brazil.
The airline was established in 2000 and started operations on 15 January 2001. It is a subsidiary of 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 Participacoes (77%), Venture (17.6%) and American International Group (5.4%) and employs 3,303 staff. The growth in Gol`s stock price made the Constantino family a member of the Forbes` billionaire list in 2005.
As the first discount airline in South America, Gol has modeled itself after the American discount flight giant Southwest and has rapidly made large profits.
Gol chief executive officer Constantino de Oliveira Junior, said: "We've made flying popular, we've extended the Gol effect to Brazil and South America by expanding our business, with innovation, efficiency, quality service and disciplined control of costs and rates."
"What made the difference was that Gol arrived on the scene with a new fleet. As a result, its maintenance costs were extremely low. In addition, it was operating on routes that were short and had a high density of traffic. It was selling tickets almost exclusively on the Internet, the way it is still doing today.” According to Oliveira, that approach means that Gol enjoys considerably lower sales costs per ticket.
Gol has managed to change some paradigms of the Brazilian aviation sector, which traditionally valued such concepts as sophistication, elegance and glamour when marketing air travel. The big concepts were broken by the simplicity, practicality and simplification of Gol’s operations.
Currently Gol has 41 flights between Brazil and neighboring Argentina. Most of its major destinations can be reached on direct flights from Miami, Dallas and Los Angeles.
* GOL Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA Brazil's leading discount airline. The Company provides frequent service on routes between all of Brazil's major cities and to international destinations in Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay. As of December 31, 2005, it operated 42 single-class Boeing 737 aircraft, and offered 420 daily flights in Brazil and to its international destinations.
