I recently covered how Brazilian airline GOL has long haul expansion plans, as the company intends to take delivery of at least a handful of Airbus A330-900neos, complementing the carrier’s current all-Boeing 737 fleet. We knew that the long haul expansion would be happening at some point this year, but the first route has just been revealed, and is already on sale.
GOL adds Rio de Janeiro to New York A330 route
As of July 8, 2026, GOL intends to launch 3x weekly nonstop flights between Rio de Janeiro (GIG) and New York (JFK). Specifically, the 4,768-mile flight will operate with the following schedule:
G37000 Rio de Janeiro to New York departing 9:55PM arriving 6:55AM (+1 day)
G37001 New York to Rio de Janeiro departing 11:00PM arriving 9:55AM (+1 day)
The northbound flight is blocked at 10hr, and operates on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, while the southbound flight is blocked at 9hr55min, and operates on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.
Here’s what’s interesting — for now, this route will be operated by a Wamos Air Airbus A330-200. While GOL is taking delivery of A330-900neos in the coming months, the exact timeline remains to be seen, but the airline isn’t waiting to launch long haul flights.
GOL is primarily owned by Abra Group, which also owns Wamos Air, a Spanish airline and wet lease operator. So the idea is that Wamos Air will lease an A330 to GOL in order to commence long haul flights ASAP.
Wamos Air has several A330-200s, so it’s not clear exactly which one will be used for these flights. However, we do know that the plane will have business class, so odds are that it will be one of Wamos Air’s A330s with a staggered configuration in business class.
I’m curious to see how the competitive dynamics evolve
Big picture, we have reason to believe that the Airbus A330-900neos that GOL is acquiring are planes that are being returned to the leasing company by Azul, in which case it sounds like GOL will be launching long haul service, while Azul may be reducing its long haul service.
Azul’s quirk is that the airline is based out of Viracopos Airport (VCP), intended as an alternative to Sao Paulo Guarulhos Airport (GRU). While it’s nice to have an airline offer a unique route network, it just seems like a lot of people don’t even consider Azul when flying to or from Sao Paulo, which makes it tough for the carrier to compete.
So with that in mind, GOL’s expansion seems a little more logical to me, in terms of expanding out of both Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, where the airline has a massive connecting network.
What’s interesting about the competitive dynamics here is that GOL is owned by Abra Group, which also owns most of Avianca. Meanwhile Air France-KLM and American are also investors in GOL, with the idea being that they have a strategic partnership in the region.
In particular, with GOL expanding with more nonstop routes to North America, one wonders what that means for cooperation with American. Up until now, American has appreciated being able to route passengers onto GOL flights within South America. However, given the lack of a joint venture or similar closer cooperation, American doesn’t have much of an incentive to route passengers onto longer GOL flights.
How will this all evolve? Will American and GOL strengthen their partnership, increasingly trying to take on Delta and LATAM (given that LATAM used to be American’s partner, but Delta swooped in and bought a stake in LATAM, forcing the airline to leave oneworld)? Or could we see the airlines scale back their partnership, given that GOL is essentially becoming a competitor in some long haul markets?
GOL does have a frequent flyer partnership with some programs, including American AAdvantage and Air France-KLM Flying Blue, so hopefully there’s some business class award availability on these flights (I don’t see anything yet, but these flights have just been loaded into the schedule).
Bottom line
GOL will be going through quite an expansion in the coming months, as the airline takes delivery of Airbus A330-900neos. Even ahead of that, the airline will be launching long haul flights between Rio de Janeiro and New York, using leased Wamos Air A330-200s.
It’s fascinating to see GOL get into the long haul, wide body game, and I’m curious to see how this all plays out… and I look forward to trying a new long haul airline!
