nicolas75

Air France-KLM announced Wednesday, February 19, it has signed a strategic partnership with Gol Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes, which will represent an investment of USD 100 million (part of which are USD 52 million in the capital of the Brazilian company).

This "exclusive long-term partnership" will strengthen the cooperation between both companies. "This new agreement signed today fits in the Air France-KLM strategy aimed at strengthening its leading position in the Brazil and Latin America", commented Alexandre de Juniac.

This agreement, which must first receive the authorization from the anti-trust authorities, will lead to the extension of code-sharing and the coordination of the sales forces, as well as enhanced cooperation between the two groups in the field of aircraft maintenance.

"This partnership fits in the success of the strategic cooperation initiated since 2011 between Gol and Delta Airlines, main partner of Air France-KLM".

Furthermore, Mr. de Juniac points out that Brazil, host country for the World Cup football this year and the Olympics in 2016, has a growing traffic for both business and leisure. "This collaboration fits in our strategy to develop strong and long-term partnerships in regions with strong potential", he continued.

Since 2009, Air France-KLM and Gol were already engaged in a code-sharing agreement that allows Air France and KLM to offer their customers 28 additional Brazilian destinations, via Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.

Since 2001, Gol became a major player in South America, with nearly 40% of the Brazilian domestic market, considers Air France-KLM. GOL operates a fleet of 141 Boeing 737NG serving an extensive domestic network of 51 destinations in Brazil, as well as 10 countries across Central and the South America.

Source: Le Monde (in French)

UA Fan

Now with DL also as a partner I wonder if ST membership is in the cards.

RafKa

Gol CEO Paulo Kakinoff was quoted today in Brazil's Valor Economico business newspaper saying that because Gol is mainly a local/regional player, the chances of them joining ST are "very remote". But maybe he's being intentionally misleading...

nicolas75

It is precisely because it is mainly a local player that AF-KLM invests in this company (enlarge the possibilities of destinations from CDG, increasing opportunities to feed the intercontinental flights from Rio or São Paulo).

brunos

Indeed, the agreement makes sense for all parties.

riva31

For now they are local/regional mostly, but remember Gol has plans to make a Hub in Santo Domingo Airport to Conect their network with Caribbean, Central and Nortamerica. In Dec. 2012 they started to fly to MCO and MIA with Stop in SDQ from GIG and GRU where people can connect to both destinations in SDQ, and their plans are to has a Hub in Santo Domingo as Copa has a Hub in Panama, so maybe is not so far away the anouncement that Gol will be part of Skyteam, also Air France and Air Europa has daily service to Santo Domingo airport.

RafKa

True, also Gol has recently announced a tie-up with Aerolineas Argentinas (members of both programs will be able to earn and redeem for each other's flights), so everything does seem to point out towards Gol eventually joining ST. I just wondered why the CEO was being so categorical about their intentions of not joining...

leonardoBR

This alliance with GOL is nothing to be celebrated. GOL is a budget airline which has now stopped serving even drinks on most of its flights and has a poor track record of luggage delivery. They had all they needed to fill the shoes of VARIG when the company went bankrupt but just blew their chances.

RafKa

You mean, exactly like Delta? I actually prefer Gol's service nowadays to TAM which has really gone downhill in every aspect...

pantanal

But Gol has a very good network in brazil and even has flights to argentina and chile. Its great for short flights within brazil that can be pretty expensive.

nicolas75

Never have been a huge fan of TAM neither.

I recently flew with Avianca between Rio and Sao Paulo, and was quite impressed (free drink, hot snack, smiling staff, video).

RafKa

I agree: they currently have the best service in Brazil, but their network is tiny, and lacking frequency (5x per day on SDU-CGH vs a flight every 30 mins for Gol/TAM). Yet, they seemed to be a "valuable enough" addition to Star Alliance, so I don't see why Skyteam shouldn't covet Gol.

pantanal

avianca brasil is joining * A this year (June/July??)

leonardoBR

It is a shame that Skyteam did not manage to get Avianca on board. Avianca is by far the best South American carrier and by far the best operating within Brazil.

pantanal

I would argue LAN is better