Member Article

Boeing signs £3.7bn deal with Brazilian airline, GOL

Brazilian budget airline GOL has secured a deal with Boeing to buy 60 of it 737 MAX aeroplanes.

The deal, worth approximately $6bn, or £3.7bn, is the company’s biggest order in its 12 year history, and the largest deal any South American aviation firm has ever sealed.

GOL Linhas Aereas Inteligentes, based in São Paulo, plans to replace its existing fleet with the more efficient aeroplanes to reduce costs.

Boeing’s 737 MAX model is highly advanced in fuel-efficiency, and is equipped with environmental technologies that reduce carbon emissions by 13%.

Low-costs are vital for GOL to maintain low fares, and the new plane model has operating costs which undercuts the competition by 8%.

Paulo Kakinoff, chief of GOL, said: “The new airplanes will have one of the best cost-benefit ratios in the market due to its unique operational economy, so it is fully compatible with our low-cost model.

Boeing’s president and CEO, Ray Conner said the company was proud to confirm the deal with GOL after a lasting 12-year partnership.

He commented: “We’ve watched them grow from a small start-up airline to a driving force in global aviation and we are proud to partner with them as the South American launch customer for the 737 MAX.

GOL is one of the fastest growing, low-cost, airlines in the world, and has 63 destinations in Brazil, and 12 across South America and the Caribbean.

The company maintains strong links with foreign companies, with six flight sharing partnerships, and over 60 interline agreements.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Miranda Dobson .