Air Transport

Brazil's Gol has posted a third quarter net profit of R$78 million ($46 million) despite a 16% reduction in revenues.

The airline group says in a statement that it turned a net profit of R$78 million and operating profit of R$99 million in the quarter ending 30 September. This compares to an R$511 million net loss and an R$104 million operating profit in the third quarter last year.

Revenues were down 16% to R$1.5 billion from R$1.8 billion in the third quarter last year. But this was offset by a 17% reduction in operating costs to R$1.4 billion.

As a result, the low-cost carrier's operating margin improved from 5.8% to 6.6%.

Gol in the quarter increased capacity by 13% on domestic routes but internationally capacity was down 37% due to the suspension of several routes at its Varig unit. Domestic traffic surged by 31%, partially stimulated by lower fares, but international traffic dropped by 53%, partially impacted by the swine flue.

Gol's load factor slipped to only 51% on international routes while it increased to 68% on domestic routes.