Brazilian low-cost carrier Gol has secured government approvals to transition next month at least one of its Caribbean charter services into a scheduled operation.
Gol in late June launched charter services to Aruba, Curacao and the Dominican Republic. The carrier says in a statement today that one of its Aruba services will be offered on a scheduled basis from 4 October.
Gol says the new scheduled service will be offered once weekly on a Sao Paulo-Caracas-Aruba routing using Varig-branded Boeing 737-800s. The carrier says it began selling tickets on this flight today, including on the Caracas-Aruba sector using newly secured fifth-freedom traffic rights.
ATI first reported in June that Gol was planning to launch charter services to Aruba and Curacao from Brasilia on a triangular routing and was seeking the necessary traffic rights to serve the two islands on a scheduled basis. Gol said at the time it was also planning to launch charter services to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic.
Speaking to ATI sister publication Airline Business in August, Gol CEO Constantino de Oliveira Junior said the carrier had also launched a weekly charter flight to Aruba from Sao Paulo using the Varig brand. Oliveira explained this flight was being operated by extending to Aruba one of its seven weekly Varig-branded Sao Paulo-Caracas flights.
Oliveira said at the time Gol was unable to pick up passengers in Caracas but was seeking the fifth-freedom rights required to sell the Caracas-Aruba leg separately. Over the last three months Gol was only able to carry on this leg those passengers from the scheduled Sao Paulo-Caracas flight who were heading to Aruba for holiday.
Previously all of Gol's Caribbean flights were only available as part of holiday packages sold by Brazilian travel agents. By transitioning its Caribbean flights to a scheduled operation, Gol is now able to sell those seats which are not sold as part of packages by Brazilian travel agents through the airline's own website and other distribution channels. For the first time Gol is also now able to sell tickets for travel originating in the Caribbean.
The Gol website as of today lists both Aruba and Curacao as Caribbean destinations. Gol has not yet announced the launch of scheduled services to Curacao but its website indicates its weekly Brasilia-Curacao-Aruba-Brasilia flight is now available for sale on a scheduled business. This is in addition to the separate weekly flight to Aruba which operates from Sao Paulo via Caracas.
Gol also has not yet announced the launch of scheduled services to Punta Cana and its website is not currently selling tickets to the Dominican Republic. But Innovata has recently added Gol's weekly Punta Cana flight to its database of scheduled services, indicating it will soon be available for sale. Oliveira told Airline Business in August that Punta Cana is also served by extending to the Dominican resort one of the seven weekly Varig-branded Sao Paul-Caracas flights.
The Aruba, Curacao and Punta Cana airports have been working with Gol in recent months to develop scheduled services to meet local demand for direct flights to Brazil.
Aruba, Curacao and the Dominican Republic currently have no scheduled services to Brazil, accoarding to Innovata. But Innovata data show that Gol will compete between Aruba and Caracas against Venezuelan carriers Aserca and Avior.
The Aruba Airport Authority, which has been working with Gol for several months to serve the island on a scheduled basis, points out defunct Brazilian carrier VASP previously operated scheduled flights to the island. It says Varig also operated scheduled flights on the Sao Paulo-Caracas-Aruba routing with pick up rights in Caracas before it was sold to Gol. The airport is now discussing with Gol the potential launch of a non-stop Sao Paulo-Aruba flight.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
