Brazilian carrier Gol is considering additional sale-and-leaseback deals for Boeing 737 Max 8 deliveries in 2019, after financing many of its aircraft commitments that year with GECAS.
The airline will finance five of its 737-8 deliveries via SLBs and take two more 737-8s on direct leases from the Connecticut-based lessor in 2019, it confirms and a presentation by Gol chief financial officer on Richard Lark on 26 September shows.
Gol is in "negotiations" with lessors for additional SLBs of its aircraft commitments that year, a spokeswoman says. She declines to comment on the number of additional aircraft.
The airline is scheduled to take delivery of 12 737-8s in 2019, the Flight Fleets Analyzer shows.
Gol plans to use the 737-8 primarily for fleet renewal when deliveries begin in 2018. This follows nearly two years when it stopped aircraft deliveries and shrank its fleet.
"With all the restructuring that we had, we stopped receiving aircraft for a while, and now we're lucky that the next [aircraft] will be on the new technology," said Celso Ferrer, vice-president of planning at the airline, in a September interview with FlightGlobal.
Gol announced the 12-aircraft lease deal with GECAS in September. The agreement includes SLBs of five 737-8s – all due in 2019 – and two 737-800s already in its fleet, and direct leases of five 737-8s with one due in 2018, two in 2019 and two in 2020.
The airline previously announced a SLB with AWAS for its first five 737-8 deliveries in 2018.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
