Purchase of Varig Gol Transportes Aéreos

logo of new varig brand

on march 28, 2007 gol officially purchased part of assets of varig - vrg linhas aéreas, informally known new varig, new company owned varig brand, us$320 million volo group , matlinpatterson global opportunies hedge fund. @ time, old varig under bankruptcy protection.

gol announced varig brand continue doing business operating such, rather official name vrg linhas aéreas. transaction, via gti subsidiary, required us$98 million cash payment, balance through allocation of non-voting shares varig logística , volo, had acquired varig in june 2006 us$24 million. transaction did not involve original airline, informally known old varig, continued exist until own bankruptcy in mid-2010 under name flex linhas aéreas.

in 2009 gol merged vrg linhas aéreas. vrg linhas aéreas became airline operates 2 brands: gol , varig, although in reality flights operated under gol flight numbers. initially, varig brand operated medium-haul scheduled , charter international destinations within south america , caribbean boeing 737-700 s configured in 2 classes, , long-haul charter international destinations in north america, europe , africa boeing 767-300ers configured in economy only. latter used in wet-lease operations. scheme later dropped. brand gol operates of flights of network, , had aircraft configured in all-economy class, used scheduled domestic , international operations within south america.

because of contractual obligations, between 2006 , 2009 new varig (vrg linhas aéreas) obliged purchase minimum of 140 hours/month of services old varig (flex linhas aéreas). therefore, @ time, of vrg linhas aéreas flights operated gol flight numbers flown chartered aircraft flex linhas aéreas. agreement ceased before bankruptcy of flex on august 20, 2010.