Air TransportGOL ends negotiations with Azul on possible merger
Abra, the holding company that controls the Brazilian carrier GOL Linhas Aéreas, announced the termination of discussions for a possible business combination with Azul Linhas Aéreas.
The decision comes after months of negotiations without concrete advancements and impacts cooperation agreements between the companies. In a statement sent to shareholders, GOL shared a letter addressed to Azul’s management.
The conversations formally began following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in January 2025, followed by a Confidentiality Agreement in April of the same year. The main obstacle, according to Abra, was Azul’s focus on its own financial restructuring process under Chapter 11 in the United States, which limited the progress of discussions.
In addition to ending the possibility of a merger or another form of corporate combination, GOL also notified Azul about the request to terminate the codeshare agreements established between the two companies in May 2024. These agreements allowed both companies to market flights on routes operated by the partner, expanding the destination offerings to customers.
GOL reported that it will honor all tickets already sold within this partnership, but did not disclose a timeline for the completion of the codeshare termination. The decision comes at a time when GOL is recovering its market share, having recently exited its own Chapter 11 process and seeking to strengthen its position in the Brazilian domestic sector.
Azul had not yet officially commented on the termination of negotiations and the commercial partnership.
The two companies have distinct flight network profiles, in addition to operating aircraft from different manufacturers, with GOL exclusively using Boeing 737 jets and Azul utilizing a mix that includes widebodies A330, models from the A320 family, and Embraer’s E-Jets from the E1 and E2 generations.
The difficulties faced by both coincided with LATAM’s advance in the market, which has already regained over 40% of domestic demand in Brazil.
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Creator of the website that started in 1996 as a magazine. He also writes on Brazilian websites AUTOO, MOTOO and MetrôCPTM.
