Brazil’s Gol airline to have electric air taxis from UK to replace Uber for rides to airports

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – As for Gol Airlines, no passenger will be upset anymore with Uber’s notorious delays in accepting rides to the airport. This is because the company has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Comporte Group, owned by the Constantino family, to receive 250 electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. If all goes well, the plan will be put into practice by mid-2025.

Indeed, the Vertical VA-X4 eVTOL is currently being certified by regulators. But the British model was chosen precisely because it is more advanced in this process. It looks like future technology: The electric equipment has a range of 160 km and a top speed of 320 km/h. To the despair of helicopters, it also produces 100 times less noise in cruise flight.

“For people on the ground, the noise of the eVTOL is practically the same as that of a refrigerator in the kitchen. And thanks to the technology, it is almost maintenance-free and reduces operating costs by 80%,” says Felipe Campos, chief technical officer of Avolon. This British company will supply the aircraft to Gol. So it’s no exaggeration to say the company is looking to replace (and democratize) helicopter service.

With a capacity for only four passengers and one pilot, the Vertical VA-X4 eVTOL does not fit into plans to regionalize and capillaries the airline network. Instead, passengers will be transported from major metropolitan areas to airports and vice versa. Gol itself acknowledges, however, that new business areas could emerge, such as transporting parcels and aeromedical products.

“The possibilities go far beyond passengers and depend on the creativity of the group. But this decision is not up to us, but the Comporte Group. Currently, we are trying to make the project viable. Since the business plan is still under review, it’s too early to say if we will go for other services,” says Sérgio Quito, chairman of Gol’s Operational Security Council.

Quito says that despite so much mystery, the airline has not set a timetable for introducing electric aircraft to its fleet – everything will be done conservatively and sustainably. But if his predictions are correct (he is, after all, the man in charge of this project), the company could get as many as ten units in the first year of implementation.

Of course, this project is still in development, and for that reason, only 50 units will be produced in 2024, rising to 250 units the following year and 1,000 aircraft in 2026. “It’s not crazy to think that Gol could be the first company in the world to fly with the new VA-X4 eVTOL Vertical because they are at the beginning of the whole process,” Campos says.

Although there is still a long way to go before electric aircraft become a tangible reality for customers in the Brazilian market, efforts are already underway to adapt the infrastructure. In the case of São Paulo’s new airport, a CCR Group project, eVTOL, is scheduled to be received. Finally, Gol is not the only one interested: Azul announced a similar plan in August.

THE CONSTANTINO FAMILY

The Constantino family controls Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA, Brazil’s largest airline by market share and its first low-cost carrier.

Much of its bus-transport business is held under Comporte Participacoes SA. Constantino de Oliveira Sr (known as Nene Constantino), built one of Brazil’s largest bus groups over half a century before co-founding Gol in 2001 with his four sons. Most of his children are surnamed Constantino.

Ownership and management of the family’s companies are in the hands of the second generation, most of whom are in their 40s and 50s. Patriarch Nene Constantino is no longer a shareholder or executive at Gol or Comporte.

The Constantino family emerged from relative obscurity after founding Gol, Brazil’s first low-cost airline, in 2001. Ex-trucker Constantino de Oliveira Sr (Nene Constantino) started a bus transport company in Minas Gerais state in the 1950s. By the time of Gol’s founding, it controlled one of Brazil’s largest bus groups.

However, Gol’s emergence transformed the Constantinos from a little-known local clan in a notoriously harsh industry into a high-profile and well-regarded family of entrepreneurs.

Nene Constantino’s four sons have all held key roles at Gol from the time of its founding. They are also involved in the family’s transport and other business, as are their three sisters. The family owns real estate, agribusiness, and other sectors, but on a smaller scale. Nene Constantino is no longer a shareholder or executive at the family’s major companies.