GOL To Offer Fifth Freedom Colombia-Argentina Service

Brazil’s GOL Líneas Aéreas has confirmed it plans to launch a new fifth freedom route between Bogota and Buenos Aires.

The service is the second new route secured by Bogota’s El Dorado International Airport (BOG) in as many days after LATAM Airlines Group opened reservations for a nonstop connection to Madrid, marking the carrier’s European debut from Colombia.

GOL will commence flights between Sao Paulo Guarulhos International Airport (GRU), Bogota and Buenos Aires Ezeiza International (EZE) on March 31, 2024, with the inaugural Colombia-Argentina connection taking off the following day. Operations will initially be four times per week on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday using Boeing 737-8 aircraft, with frequencies rising to daily from July 24.

Mateus Pongeluppi, chief strategy officer of GOL, says the new route marks “a crucial step” toward uniting three business centers in the largest domestic aviation markets in South America. “This operation is the beginning of a tripartite cooperation between the most relevant regional air operators: GOL, Avianca and Aerolíneas Argentinas,” he says.

GOL and Colombian flag-carrier Avianca are commercial partners after uniting in 2022 to form Abra Group, while GOL has a codeshare partnership in place with Aerolíneas Argentinas. OAG Schedules Analyser data shows that GOL already serves Argentina—operating 14 routes to the country in December 2023—but the route to Bogota will be its first to Colombia.

Both Avianca and Aerolíneas Argentinas serve Buenos Aires from Bogota, with Avianca flying daily between BOG and EZE twice a day and Aerolíneas Argentinas operating a daily Buenos Aires Aeroparque J. Newbery-BOG service. Avianca offers four routes to Brazil from BOG, flying to Belo Horizonte, Manaus, Sao Paulo Guarulhos and Rio de Janeiro Galeao, while LATAM flies GRU-BOG daily.