American Airlines confirms $200mn investment in Brazil’s GOL

GOL Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes (G3, Sao Paulo Congonhas) and American Airlines (AA, Dallas/Fort Worth) have signed a definitive investment agreement in which the United States carrier committed to making a USD200 million investment in its Brazilian partner, the two airlines announced in separate statements on February 7.

The three-year “exclusive codeshare agreement” was initially announced in September, and now GOL and American have elaborated that the latter will invest the above sum in acquiring 22.2 million newly issued preferred shares of GOL in a capital increase, achieving a 5.2% shareholding.

“All holders of the company’s preferred shares, including in the form of ADRs [American Depository Receipts], will be able to exercise their preemptive rights to subscribe to newly issued shares proportionate to their shareholdings,” GOL said in its statement, adding that detailed terms and conditions for the capital increase are expected to be approved by its board of directors and disclosed in due course, including the final amount of the raise in Brazilian reais.

The deal, which was first reported in the pre-Covid era in October 2019, is pending government and regulatory approvals. The carriers also plan to integrate their respective frequent flyer programmes starting in 2022.

“The combined networks will provide customers with more than 30 destinations in the US served by American and more than 34 new destinations in South America served by GOL,” American Airlines said in its statement.

As international traffic slowly picks up, of its total tally of 1,081 routes, American currently operates five to Brazil, according to the ch-aviation schedules module, to Sao Paulo Guarulhos from Miami Int’l (21x weekly), Dallas/Fort Worth (7x weekly), and New York JFK (7x weekly), and to Rio de Janeiro Int’l from Miami (14x weekly) and JFK (3x weekly). Of GOL’s 147 active routes, none are currently to the United States.