The Brazilian carrier GOL Linhas Aereas is accelerating its transition into a Boeing 737 MAX fleet. According to the airline’s management, the current plan is to have 75 B737 MAX aircraft by 2025. How will the airline achieve this plan?
GOL’s love of the 737 MAX
The Brazilian carrier is a super fan of the MAX family. Over and over again, the airline has shown its confidence in the aircraft, even becoming the first company worldwide to reactivate it on commercial flights following the MAX crisis.
GOL has one of the largest unfilled orders of Boeing worldwide. The airline had 95 firm orders for the acquisition of 737 MAX aircraft, of which 73 were orders for 737 MAX 8s and 22 orders were for 737 MAX 10s. At the end of 2021’s third quarter, GOL had a fleet of 129 Boeing 737 aircraft. It was composed of 114 NGs and 15 operational MAX.
In August, GOL announced a deal to acquire 28 additional Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft. Paulo Kakinoff, GOL’s CEO, said,
“We are accelerating our fleet transformation plan in anticipation of the strong recovery of air travel in the post-pandemic scenario. The 737 MAX positions GOL to grow even more competitively with the expansion of routes to destinations, at the same time providing efficiency gains.”
GOL’s fleet plans going forward
GOL has an ambitious fleet transformation plan going into the future. During the airline’s investors call, Paulo Kakinoff explained that the carrier aims to have a 50-50% fleet by 2025 and a 75-25% by 2030. That is, half of its fleet will be MAX and half will be NG by 2025, and three in every four will be MAX by the end of the decade.
He added,
“Under the agreements, the company will end 2021 with 28 737 MAX-8 aircraft (20% of the total fleet). By the end of 2022, GOL expects to have 44 737 MAX-8 aircraft (32% of the total fleet). With current purchase commitments, the Company will meet its goal of a 75% 737 MAX fleet by 2030.”…
