http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gol_%28company%29

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 of flights from and to Brazil as of August 2006.citation needed It owns Varig airline and operates a growing domestic and international scheduled network. Its main hubs are São Paulo's Congonhas International Airport, Rio de Janeiro's Galeão International Airport and Brasília International Airport - Presidente Juscelino Kubitschek|. Gol also has focus cities at Rio de Janeiro's Santos Dumont Airport, São Paulo's Guarulhos International Airport and Porto Alegre's Salgado Filho International Airport.

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.citation needed

On 24 June 2004 Gol launched simultaneous initial public offerings on the New York and São Paulo stock exchanges. It is now owned by AeroPar Participações (77%), Venture (17.6%) and American International Group (5.4%) and employs 5,456 staff (at March 2007).1 The growth in Gol's stock price made the Constantino family a member of the Forbes Magazine billionaire list in 2005 .

In 2007, Gol was suposed to began a code-share with TAP Portugal, opening the European market to the Brazilian airline, and the internal Brazilian market to the Portuguese airline (the biggest foreign airline in Brazil), but TAP Portugal has chosen the future Star Alliance member TAM.citation needed

On March 28, 2007 Varig was officially purchased by Gol for US$320 million. Gol announced that Varig will continue to operate under its current name.2 The transaction, via its GTI subsidiary, requires a US$98 million cash payment, with the balance through the allocation of non-voting shares to Varig Logística and Volo which had acquired Varig in June 2006 for US$24 million.3

edit Destinations

Gol operates services to the following scheduled domestic destinations (as of December 2006): Aracaju, Araraquara, Belém, Belo Horizonte, Boa Vista, Brasília, Campinas, Campo Grande, Caxias do Sul, Chapecó, Cuiabá, Curitiba, Florianópolis, Fortaleza, Foz do Iguaçu, Goiânia, Ilhéus, Imperatriz, João Pessoa, Joinville, Juazeiro do Norte, Londrina, Macapá, Maceió, Manaus, Marabá, Maringá, Natal, Navegantes, Palmas, Petrolina, Porto Alegre, Porto Seguro, Porto Velho, Recife, Ribeirão Preto, Rio Branco, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Santarém, São José do Rio Preto, São Luís, São Paulo, Teresina, Uberlândia and Vitória.

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

edit Fleet

The Gol fleet includes the following aircraft (as of June 2007)1 :

IN SERVICE:

14 Boeing 737-300

30 Boeing 737-700

25 Boeing 737-800

ON ORDER:

25 Boeing 737-900

12 Boeing 737-800

edit Incidents and accidents

Main article: Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907

On 29 September 2006, Flight 1907, a Boeing 737-800 with registration PR-GTD disappeared from radar while flying over the center-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,45 470 miles south of Manaus.6 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