GOL Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes (G3, São Paulo Congonhas) is set to defer deliveries of fifteen outstanding B737-800s in response to a decline in demand for domestic Brazilian operations. The country's airline industry has been hit hard by a slowing economy which has resulted in rising inflation, exchange rate volatility, and higher credit restrictions.
Announcing a third-quarter net loss of BRL2.1 billion (USD512 million), CEO Paulo Sérgio Kakinoff said in the face of its current difficulties, GOL had managed to reach an agreement with Boeing (BOE, Washington National) to postpone the delivery of eleven jets to 2027.
“We have negotiated with our supplier the flexibility in the delivery schedule of the next two years. Therefore, instead of fifteen B737-800NGs scheduled to be delivered in 2016 and 2017, we will add four aircraft to our fleet in the period," he said. "In addition, as we have already done in recent years, we will sublease twelve aircraft in 2016 to foreign airlines during our low season — compared to seven in 2015.”
Kakinoff added that while its sub-leasing operations do not generate profit, they do help reduce expenditure on primary lease contracts and aircraft MRO.
Citing the Brazilian real's continued weakness against international currencies, GOL will also scale back capacity to the United States switching its current Miami International and Orlando International via Punta Cana services to seasonal with effect from February 2016. Given Venezuela's current precarious economic outlook coupled with difficulties in repatriating revenue in hard currency, GOL is also reconsidering its Caracas Simón Bolivar operations, already down to just a weekly flight.
