GOL’s traffic up 34.8% in December

SAO PAULO – Brazilian airline GOL Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA (GOL) registered another sharp jump in traffic during December as the local economy continued to pick up and the airline increased capac

SAO PAULO – Brazilian airline GOL Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA (GOL) registered another sharp jump in traffic during December as the local economy continued to pick up and the airline increased capacity.

Meanwhile, profitability continued to rise as the recent price war between GOL and its principle rival TAM SA (TAM) ended.

GOL registered revenue passenger kilometers, or RPKs, of 2.83 billion in December, up 34.8% from the year before and 15% higher than in November.

RPKs are the number of paying passengers multiplied by the number of kilometers they fly.

GOL’s load factor rose sharply in the last year, reaching 76.3% in December compared with 64.7% in the same month the year before.

The December figures seal a much improved performance by GOL in the fourth quarter. RPKs rose 38.0%, while load factors reached 73.4%, up from 59.5% in the same period the prior year.

The recent global economic slump hurt Brazil less than most, but there was a marked slowdown in the economy at the end of 2008, which was reflected in GOL’s operating figures.

International RPKs rose 23.9% on the year in December, with the ongoing recovery after the sharp decline in demand caused by the outbreak of swine flu last year.

December yields, the average price paid to fly one kilometer, showed the company is charging more. Yield was slightly above 0.19 Brazilian reals, continuing the gains seen in recent months.

GOL and TAM have dominated the domestic aviation market for the last couple of years, jointly holding a market share of 85%, but they face increased competition from smaller airlines, such as start up Azul Linhas Aereas Brasileiras and WebJet.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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