Brazilian airline GOL, a partner of Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines, will get a second round of financing from the U.S. Export-Import Bank for engine maintenance by Delta.
With the $45.5 million Ex-Im Bank loan guarantee announced Thursday, GOL engines will be shipped from Sao Paulo to Atlanta for heavy maintenance by Delta’s maintenance unit, which the bank said supports about 400 jobs. The Ex-Im Bank, which boosts exports of U.S. goods and services through financing, last year announced a similar loan guarantee worth $84.8 million for GOL maintenance by Delta.
Delta in 2011 announced it was buying a $100 million stake in GOL and has an exclusive alliance with the Brazilian carrier. Though Delta is a beneficiary of the Ex-Im Bank financing for GOL, Delta has for more than a year voiced opposition to Ex-Im Bank that provides financing to foreign airlines it competes against.
Spokesman Trebor Banstetter said Thursday that Delta’s concerns about the Ex-Im bank are limited to the Bank’s financing in particular scenarios of wide-body international plane sales to foreign airlines, adding that Delta “has never objected to the work of the Bank generally.”
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