Brazil’s former No. 1 carrier Gol now playing catch up to Latam and Azul

Gol was Brazil’s largest airline three years ago, dominating key markets like the busy business-heavy route between Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. The pandemic changed that. Competitors Azul and Latam Airlines Group have come back faster from the crisis and leaped ahead of Gol. The airline’s Brazilian capacity was only back to 82 percent of 2019 levels in September, compared to 109 percent at Azul and 104 percent at Latam, Diio by Cirium schedules show. Azul’s growth has been driven by its extensive network in Brazil — the largest in terms of domestic destinations — and efficient connecting hubs in Belo Horizonte, Campinas, and Recife, while Latam’s recovery and expansion was spurred after a failed hostile takeover of its Brazilian business by Azul last year. Speaking sidelines of the ALTA Leaders Forum in Buenos Aires earlier in October, Gol CEO Celso Ferrer attributed this slower recovery to the lag in business demand, which meant the airline has not resumed its schedule depth in corporate-heavy markets. Corporate demand is still at 60-70 percent of 2019 levels led, as in other regions, by small- and medium-sized businesses, he said. But that is about to change. “During the winter, we are bringing back the whole Congonhas, Guarulhos, Santos Dumont, Brasilia network,” Ferrer said. “This is a good news, and we are expecting the business demand to come back in the fourth quarter — to normalize.” Congonhas and Guarulhos airports serve São Paulo, and Santos Dumont Rio. Brazil is Latin America’s largest aviation market with more than 119 million passengers in 2019, data from the Brazilian civil aviation authority, ANAC, shows. While air travel — like everywhere — took a serious blow during the pandemic, domestic passenger traffic had recovered to nearly 99% of three years earlier in August, according to ANAC’s latest data. International traffic to and from Brazil was still down a quarter during the month.<br/>