The Brazilian carrier GOL Linhas Aéreas has announced it will increase the number of weekly flights from Brasília International Airport (BSB) to the United States. GOL currently serves Miami International Airport (MIA) and Orlando International Airport (MCO) from this hub employing its Boeing 737 MAX 8 fleet in two of the longest non-stop flights with this aircraft model. Let’s investigate further.
Adding frequencies
GOL only recently reopened its routes between Brazil and the United States after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The airline restarted flying to Orlando and Miami on May 13 and 17, respectively, with a few frequencies per week.
On July 1, GOL started offering daily departures, increasing by 80% its number of flights and seat capacity.
The flights remain on the same schedule, which favors customers from different parts of Brazil, who can make quick connections in Brasília and complete the entire journey to Florida in a single day.
Bruno Balan, GOL’s Strategic Airline Planning Manager, said,
“GOL is prepared to make domestic connections to the US in just 50 minutes, especially for connecting flights from Congonhas, Guarulhos, RIOgaleão, Santos Dumont, Salvador, Fortaleza, Belém, Curitiba, Florianópolis and Porto Alegre.”
GOL has increased its flight frequencies to Orlando and Miami. Now it flies daily. Photo: Lukas Souza | Simple Flying.
The routes
To operate these routes, GOL employs its Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, which, in international configuration, has a capacity for 176 passengers.
The daily flight G3 7602 departs from Brasília at 9:50 am and lands in Orlando at 17:10 (local time).
Meanwhile, the return from Orlando to Brazil’s capital (flight G3 7601) takes off at 22:10 and lands at 7:10 the next day. On the route to Miami, takeoffs depart at 10:00 from Brasília (G3 7748) and land at 17:05. The return flight, G3 7749, departs at 21:30, arriving in Brasília at 6:20.
These two routes are among the longest non-stop services currently available onboard a Boeing 737 MAX.
The flight between Brasília and Orlando is 3,778 miles long, and it is the longest worldwide, surpassing Aerolíneas Argentinas’ flight between Buenos Aires and Punta Cana (3,728 miles).
Meanwhile, the flight between Brasília and Miami is the fourth-longest onboard a MAX aircraft, flying 3,598 miles (the third-longest is also operated by GOL, between Brasília and Cancún).
GOL operates three of the five longest non-stop Boeing 737 MAX flights worldwide. Photo: Getty Images.
GOL’s latest news
Last month, GOL and Aerolíneas Argentinas deepened their codeshare agreement by launching an “air bridge” between São Paulo’s Guarulhos International Airport and Buenos Aires’ Aeroparque.
As of July 2022, GOL Linhas Aéreas is offering around 4,158 weekly flights across Brazil and the Americas. Compared to 2019 levels, GOL still has to recover 25% of its pre-pandemic traffic levels (although, in terms of profitability, the airline has already rebounded).
In terms of passengers, GOL has carried 10.69 million passengers throughout the year, according to data provided by Brazil’s civil aviation authority.
GOL is in third place in terms of passengers carried, after LATAM (11.48 million passengers) and Azul (10.85 million passengers). Internationally, GOL has only carried 230,278 passengers in 2022.
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