Gol plans to reactivate two more Boeing 767s as the Brazilian carrier expands its new widebody charter operation to include flights to the US, Europe and South Africa.
The company stopped operating 767s in 2008 after dropping all long-haul services at its Varig division but at the end of last year reactivated one aircraft for charters to the Caribbean. ATI and Flightglobal reported last month the carrier was looking at re-activating additional 767s as part of a plan to expand its Caribbean charter operation, which was launched in July 2009 and now uses a mix of 767s and Boeing 737s.
Gol CEO Constantino de Oliveira Junior says the carrier has now firmed plans to reactivate two more 767s for charters. But he reveals the additional aircraft will be used to operate even longer charter flights.
"We expect to do flights between Brazil and US, Brazil and Europe and also during the World Cup we'll do some charters to South Africa," Oliveira told analysts at the end of last week during a conference call to discuss fourth quarter 2009 earnings.
"That's the expectation now for the three aircraft. We'll also have the possibility to continue the charters between Sao Paulo and Cancun that we launched on December 26."
He says the one already reactivated 767 also was used "in January and part of February" to operate some charter flights from Buenos Aires. Oliveira says these charters may resume at some point as Gol expands its active 767 fleet to three aircraft.
Gol initially acquired 14 767s in 2007 to operate scheduled routes to Europe and North America. Over the last 18 months the carrier has been trying to negotiate early lease returns and slowly has reduced its 767 fleet to six aircraft.
CFO Leonardo Pereira told analysts that "we have two that we have either sub-leased or are in the process of subleasing. So we will be down to four."
"Out of those four we are using three for charter flights. That is a positive thing. Without interfering in the domestic supply and demand we are using the 767 for long haul charters and consequently we will be generating revenues from this asset which was not generating last year," Pereira says.
The 767s have been a financial drain for Gol as the company has continued to make monthly lease payments of roughly $100,000 per aircraft while the fleet has been grounded. Gol executives say the new charter operation and subleases are not a permanent solution because the charters are only seasonal and the subleases do not cover the entire remaining term of the carrier's own leases. But they help cover some of the costs associated with the assets.
"With the charter aircraft we are working to pay the lease rate and all the cost related to the aircraft," Oliveira explains. "With the subleased aircraft we have some cost difference. We sublease the aircraft at a lower rate than we are paying. But this will help us reduce our expenses and our cash related to the 767s."
Gol, which at the end of last year transitioned to an all 737NG narrowbody fleet, also continues to pay monthly lease payments on grounded 737-300s. But Pereira says these costs should end in the second quarter of 2010.
"We still have some 737-300s that we are sending back," Pereira says. "We expect by the end of the second quarter most likely all the 737-300s should be out."
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
