Second only to LATAM and Avianca as the biggest airline in South America by total passengers carried, Brazilian low-cost carrier GOL Linhas Aéreas has had a turbulent few years.
The airline filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York in January 2024 after racking up more than $3.8 billion in debt coming out of the pandemic-related travel downturn and waiting for delayed deliveries of Boeing plane orders.
GOL Linhas Aéreas emerged from bankruptcy at the start of 2025 and quickly go to work on ambitious expansion plans beyond South America after receiving delivery of five new Airbus A330-900 planes earlier this year.
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GOL Linhas Aéreas to suspend all U.S. flights until 2027
GOL launched a new route to Orlando from Galeão–Antonio Carlos Jobim International Airport (GIG) in Rio de Janeiro in March 2026 and a second seasonal route to JFK in July 2026.
Suspended and restarted several times from different Brazilian destinations over the last five years, the flight to Miami International (MIA) has been GOL’s main connection to the U.S. both before and after the Covid-19 pandemic.
But amid the spike in jet fuel costs as a result of the U.S. war with Iran, GOL has temporarily suspended all flights to the U.S. until the start of 2027.
The suspended routes include six flights to Miami and Orlando from different Brazilian cities. The JFK flight was always a seasonal route that was already slated to be retired earlier in October.
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The Brazilian cities from which GOL flies to the U.S. include Rio, Belém, Brasília, Fortaleza, and Manaus.
Along with the cut U.S. routes, GOL is also suspended several South American ones: Rio de Janeiro and Fortaleza Airport (FOR) to Montevideo in Uruguay, Rio to Asunción in Paraguay, and São Paulo São Paulo/Guarulhos International Airport (GRG) to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic.
In its statement on the cancelations, GOL said the cuts were necessary “because of the successive increases in the price of jet fuel, which has doubled and accounts for nearly 40% of operating costs, GOL is adjusting routes, with reductions and/or suspensions of service on some segments.”
Local Brazilian outlets are reporting that GOL spent more than BRL 7.6 billion ($1.5 billion) more than budgeted on jet fuel and other operating costs in 2026.
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GOL slashes U.S. and South American flights, calls route planning ‘a dynamic and continuous process’
The airline further said that its network is “a dynamic and continuous process” that periodically needs to be adjusted “to the needs of the operation as a whole, without any regional distinction or prioritization.”
GOL was a front-runner in bringing the low-cost airline model to South America with a first flight that ran from Brasília to São Paulo in January 2001.
GOL CEO Celso Ferrer had previously called the new routes to Orlando and New York as part of the company’s efforts to turn GOL into an “intercontinental company, connecting Brazil to Europe and North America.”
Related: After Chapter 11 bankruptcy, airline makes surprising comeback