Took the Gol image from Emirates, lol. https://www.emirates.com/nz/english/destinations_offers/travel_beyond/travel-partners/gol-airlines.aspx
AA 787 Image by aa.com
Basically a love story. Delta Air Lines steals LATAM from American Airlines and dumps Gol… Is American Airlines now going for Gol?
Background:
A few weeks ago, Delta Air Lines announced an earth-shattering investment in Oneworld and American Airlines partner LATAM. Delta will purchase a 20% stake in LATAM Airlines. This resulted in LATAM and American to cancel their antitrust immunity Joint Venture. As a result of this new partnership between Delta and LATAM, Delta cancelled its 9% stake in Brazilian airlines GOL Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes.
Gol:
GOL Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes is a “low-cost” airline (though, there has been some debate on that as they provide lounges). The airline has its main hubs located in Sao Paulo, Brasilia, Rio De Janiero, and Fortaleza with additional focus cities in secondary Brazilian airports.
- The airline has a fleet of 126 aircraft consisting of 737-700, -800, and a few grounded MAX 8 aircraft.
- Gol currently has 93 more MAX 8 and 30 MAX 10s on order.
- The airline serves about 97 destinations across the Americas.
- Gol currently holds the longest 737 MAX 8 route (when it wasn’t grounded): Brasilia to Orlando, with a distance 6112km or 3300nmi.
- In January and December 2018 GOL had 35.7% of the domestic and 9.6% of the international market share to/from Brazil
American Airlines & South America:
American Airlines is currently the largest U.S. airline to fly to South America. Literally hours after Delta announced the LATAM partnership, AA released a statement saying it remains dedicated to being the largest U.S. carrier to serve South America. American Airlines serves destinations in South America from its hubs in New York JFK, Miami, Dallas/Fort Worth, and Los Angeles. Just to name a few of the destinations they serve:
- Maunus, Brazil
- Cordoba, Brazil
- Brasilia, Brazil
- Medellin, Columbia
- Baranquilla, Columbia
- Guayaquil, Ecuador
- Montevideo, Uruguay,
…and many more destinations. For refernce, Delta currently doesn’t serve the listed destinations in addition to a few more. Delta only serves South America from its hubs in New York JFK and Atlanta and only flies to Cartanega, Lima, Quito, Bogota, Santiago, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, and Rio De Janiero (all of which American flies to).
Delta Air Lines VS American Airlines South American Route Map
American’s Response:
Some days after this was announced, American Airlines announced it would increase service from Miami to Sao Paulo, Lima, and Santiago by adding an extra daily flight in 2020. This was obviously intended to combat the new partnership between Delta and LATAM and remain the largest U.S. carrier serving South America.
It’s now being reported that American and Gol are in talks of a potential partnership.
Reuters:
American Airlines Group Inc and Brazil’s Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA are negotiating a “partnership” that could “integrate flights between the two airlines in Latin America,” a newspaper reported on Friday.
A partnership between the two could significantly strengthen both airline’s presence in the U.S. and South America, especially Brazil. Passengers on American can connect on Gol to travel throughout South America and reach destinations that weren’t previously served by former AA partner LATAM.
Gol’s Route Map
If a partnership develops, this could lead to more partnerships with other airlines, possible Oneworld alliance members.
What do you all think about this? Do you think this partnership will proceed?
On a scale of 0-10, 0 being will not happen or 10 being 100% going to happen, How much do you believe this partnership between American Airlines and Gol will materialize?
- 0
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
0 voters
