A new carrier is poised to enter the transatlantic market. Brazilian airline GOL is about to grow beyond its narrowbody fleet and introduce A330-900s to launch international flights from Rio de Janeiro’s Tom Jobim International Airport.
A route to New York is scheduled to kick off on 8 July, to be followed by the launch of flights to Paris and Lisbon later this year.
According to some reports, management has also moved to secure slots in London and Porto.
Expanding from its traditional all-B737 fleet mix, GOL is set to receive five A330-900s before the end of 2027.
It is unclear how the airline’s long-haul cargo activities will align with Avianca, its sister airline in the Abra Group alongside Spanish charter airline Wamos Air.
For RIOgaleao, the operator of Rio’s main airport, the development is auspicious, says its business director Patrick Fehring.
“We lost our last Brazilian widebody operator in 2019, when LATAM cut its flights to Miami and Orlando. It’s easier to develop international service with a Brazilian carrier,” he says, adding that for the first time, GOL will offer more seats out of Rio than Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos airport.
RIOgaleao’s cargo business grew last year, driven by its traditional core segments – the oil & gas business and aerospace, both of which continue to go strong.
GE Aerospace, which has its biggest engine facility at Rio, brought in well over 600 engines last year, growing its business by over 50%.
A third growth engine was e-commerce, which brought in 15% of the airport’s inbound tonnage in February.
To accommodate the rapid growth, RIOgaleao sequestered a 1,800 sq ft section of the warehouse for e-commerce last year, and management has earmarked another 1,800 sq ft of dedicated space for this segment, which should be ready by late June.
“We’re in negotiations with a second Asian e-commerce giant,” says Fehring, adding that he believes the airport can replicate last year’s growth and double its e-commerce traffic.
Online shopping boom
E-commerce has also gone through the roof at Latin America Cargo City (LACC), which manages the cargo business of Montevideo’s Carrasco International Airport.
Parcel traffic surged from 50,000 parcels a month to 200,000-250,000 last year. Growth slowed in the first two months of 2026, but Mariela Prospitti, commercial senior manager, sees ample room for expansion.
Current volumes are all for the Uruguay market, but LACC is looking to emulate its strategy for pharmaceuticals and other commodities, which have placed the airport, in tandem with Montevideo’s port, as a multimodal regional distribution hub serving neighbouring countries.
This is facilitated by the foreign trade zone status for the airport.
LACC has started work on building a three-storey, 5,000 sq m facility expected to be ready by late October. It is geared primarily to e-commerce, with additional space for other companies that are looking to avail themselves of the FTZ status.
LACC is looking to develop partnerships with logistics operators, which can take various forms, such as built-to-suit facilities or joint development.
“Our strategy in the long term is to develop our 4PL capabilities,” says Prospitti, adding that moves in this direction are already playing out in the pharmaceutical arena.
With some customers in this sector, LACC is involved in the logistics all the way to the destination, and it is developing its capabilities in elements like serialisation and packaging, including the validation of new packaging solutions to give clients a broader range of options.
“E-commerce is our main focus right now,” says Jorge Rosillo, general manager of Guayaquil’s José Joaquín de Olmedo International Airport. The airport is developing a special facility which will primarily serve Amazon.
The e-commerce tsunami lost about 10% in tonnage since the national government introduced a $20 flat tax on such imports, Rosillo reports.
On the bright side, imports of cell phones and pharmaceuticals have also shown strong growth…
