Air France-KLM and GOL Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes have signed an agreement to extend and enhance their commercial partnership for the next 10 years, granting each other exclusivity on routes between Europe and Brazil.
The agreement includes expanded codesharing, enhanced joint sales activities, and more benefits for customers via Air France-KLM’s Flying Blue and GOL’s SMILES frequent flyer programs. The two partners will also expand the existing maintenance support by Air France Industries KLM Engineering & Maintenance (AFIKLME&M) to GOL’s CFM56 and LEAP engines.
The partnership dates back to 2014, when it was put in place for an initial five years, before a first renewal in 2019 and over two million passengers have made use of the partnership so far, the airlines said.
The airlines said the agreement covers over 99% of the demand between Brazil and Europe and that today one in five passengers traveling to Brazil with Air France or KLM connects to a GOL flight.
The partners said they would continue investing to further improve customer experience and create an even more seamless product, with an optimized network between Europe and Brazil, spanning over 80 European destinations, 45 destinations in Brazil, and in the future, new destinations across Latin America.
Air France-KLM’s partnership and network expansion strategy is in the spotlight at the moment after the Franco-Dutch airline group agreed earlier in October to buy, as part of a consortium, a minority stake in Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), with the possibility under certain conditions of later increasing that to a majority shareholding.
Air France-KLM CEO Ben Smith has repeatedly spoken of the group’s wish to take an active part in European airline consolidation and has also expressed interest in TAP Air Portugal, which is in the process of being privatized, in part for its positioning and its own south American network.
“South America, and particularly Brazil, is one of the most strategic markets for Air France-KLM. The historical partnership between Air France-KLM and GOL has been instrumental in allowing us to provide our customers with a comprehensive and broad value proposition in the region,” Smith said. “Building on what we’ve already achieved, we are very pleased to extend and deepen this exclusive partnership for 10 more years. This new agreement will allow us to implement the necessary structural enhancements to ensure Air France-KLM and GOL’s leadership position between Brazil and Europe.”
GOL CEO Celso Ferrer said, “I reinforce that GOL is deeply committed to support and help to strengthen the Brazil-Europe corridor, and we have no doubt Air France-KLM is the best partner to achieve that.”
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