Abra Group

A red Airbus with a lowercase “avianca” in Bogotá, an orange Boeing 737 with big GOL letters in São Paulo: at first glance, the two have little to do with each other. Since 2022, though, they have belonged to the same family – the Abra Group. After LATAM, the holding company is Latin America’s second-largest aviation group. For your sightings, one thing matters: Abra itself does not fly a single aircraft. That is left to the airlines beneath it, each with its own codes, registrations and colors.

How the Abra Group came to be

The Abra Group is a young umbrella over two very different airlines. The holding company was registered in England in February 2022 and publicly announced in May 2022. Behind it stood Avianca’s main shareholders and GOL’s controlling shareholders, the Constantino family. The stated goal: bring both airlines together under one roof while keeping their brands and flight operations separate. Together, they can buy aircraft, financing and distribution more cheaply, while two well-known names continue to appear on the market.

Both airlines brought an eventful past with them. Avianca traces its roots back to SCADTA, which was founded on December 5, 1919, in Barranquilla, Colombia – making it one of the oldest airlines in the world. In 1940, the merger with SACO produced the name Avianca. In 2010, Central America’s TACA joined, and its group also included Costa Rica’s LACSA. Since 2013, these companies have all flown under the Avianca brand.

GOL is much younger. The airline started on January 15, 2001, with a route from Brasília to São Paulo and relied from the beginning on a simple model with just one aircraft type, the Boeing 737. It was founded by the Constantino family, who later also became among the architects of the Abra Group. In 2007, GOL bought parts of the then VRG Linhas Aéreas and with them the storied Varig brand.

By its own account, the group reached about 9.7 billion US dollars in revenue, 71 million passengers and 46 million frequent flyer program members on a pro forma basis in fiscal year 2025. Other things count for your logbook – but the numbers show what league the group plays in.

Two airlines, two Chapter 11 processes

Anyone looking into the Abra Group quickly stumbles over the term Chapter 11 – the US process in which companies restructure under creditor protection while operations continue.

Avianca filed in New York in May 2020, when the pandemic brought air traffic almost to a standstill. On December 1, 2021, the airline exited the process. During this phase, the holding company moved its legal seat from Panama to the United Kingdom and renamed itself Avianca Group; headquarters stayed in Bogotá.

GOL followed on January 25, 2024, with its own Chapter 11 filing, also in New York. The reason given was heavy debt. Flight operations continued as normal, and GOL emerged from the process in June 2025. Since then, the airline has been firmly anchored in the Abra structure.

The group’s airlines at a glance

The table shows the most important companies with their codes and the registrations you can expect on the fuselage. How IATA and ICAO codes relate is explained in the article IATA and ICAO codes.

At Avianca, a second look at the registration is worthwhile: part of the fleet traditionally flies on the US register, meaning with an N at the start. Why airlines from other countries use this and how N-numbers are built is covered in the article on US N-numbers. For an overview of all prefixes, see Country prefixes on aircraft.

Avianca: red, Airbus and Dreamliner

Avianca is the group’s network airline and Colombia’s largest airline. Its hub is El Dorado Airport in Bogotá, and other important nodes are Medellín, Cali and Cartagena. Through its companies in Central America and Ecuador, Avianca is also strongly represented in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Ecuador. According to the group, it has the largest share of seats in Colombia, Ecuador and the core of Central America.

Avianca flies short- and medium-haul routes with the Airbus A320 family: the A319, A320 and increasingly the A320neo, of which Avianca ordered a large number in 2022 with deliveries into the 2030s. On long-haul, the Boeing 787-8 is the workhorse. Avianca has used the Dreamliner since 2015, and some aircraft previously flew for Norwegian. For regional routes within Colombia, there has been Avianca Express with ATR 72s since 2019.

Avianca’s alliance membership is clear: since June 21, 2012, the airline has been a member of Star Alliance. That makes it a partner of Lufthansa, United and others – and explains why you also find Avianca flight numbers on flights of other Star Alliance airlines. What sets the big alliances apart is covered in the article Star Alliance, Oneworld and SkyTeam.

In October 2023, Avianca overhauled its look: since then, the name appears in lowercase on the fuselage, and red remains the defining color. Until all aircraft are repainted, you will see old and new variants side by side – a rewarding subject for your archive. More in the article When airlines change their design.

Avianca Cargo

The Avianca family also includes Avianca Cargo, the former Tampa Cargo. It flies A330-200F freighters and is closely tied to Colombian exports, above all cut flowers. The cargo arm also includes Mexico’s AeroUnion. A gray or white A330 with Avianca Cargo titles is a typical sight in Miami – Miami Airport is one of the most important destinations for Latin American cargo airlines.

GOL: orange and only the Boeing 737

GOL is the counter-model to Avianca. Instead of a colorful mix of types, the airline has relied on a single type since its start: the Boeing 737. That cuts costs in training, maintenance and spare parts and makes GOL one of Latin America’s largest 737 operators. By its own account, GOL has the second-largest share of seats in the Brazilian market, behind LATAM Brasil and ahead of Azul.

In the fleet, you find three generations side by side: the 737-700 and 737-800 of the Next Generation as well as the 737 MAX 8. GOL had already signed a firm order for 60 MAXs in 2012 and is one of the type’s early customers. The 737 MAX 10 is also on the order books. New is the step into long-haul: in 2026, GOL announced Airbus A330-900s, with which routes from Rio de Janeiro to New York, Lisbon and Paris, among others, are planned. That ends the all-737 era – check the current status for deliveries and first flights. How to reliably tell the NG and MAX apart at the fence – engines, tail cone, winglets – is shown in the article Telling Boeing 737 generations apart.

The cargo arm Gollog uses converted 737-800BCFs, including for online retail. GOL’s important hubs are São Paulo-Congonhas, São Paulo-Guarulhos, Brasília and Rio de Janeiro-Galeão. Internationally, GOL flies mainly within South America, to the Caribbean and to the US.

On alliances, GOL goes its own way: the airline decided against joining in 2010 and works with codeshare partners instead, including Avianca, American Airlines, Air France, KLM and Turkish Airlines. A GOL codeshare on an Air France flight of course does not turn the Air France jet into a GOL jet – more in the article Codeshare flights explained.

Wamos Air, Sky and Embraer: the group grows

Since its founding, the Abra Group has widened its reach – not always successfully. In 2022, Avianca wanted to take over the low-cost carrier Viva Air. After strict conditions from the Colombian authorities and Viva’s financial trouble, Avianca pulled out in May 2023.

The stake in Wamos Air went more successfully. The Spanish airline from Madrid specializes in ACMI: it leases widebody aircraft with crew, maintenance and insurance to other airlines – how that works is explained in the article Wet lease explained. Talks began in early 2024, and the stake was completed in October 2024. The group calls Wamos a strategic stake. For you as a spotter in Europe, that is interesting: Wamos jets with Spanish EC- registrations turn up regularly in summer traffic when other airlines buy in capacity. When an aircraft arrives in another airline’s livery under another airline’s flight number, the article Callsign and flight number helps.

The next building block is called Sky Airline. The Chilean low-cost carrier with its offshoot Sky Airline Peru flies the A320neo family. Back in 2021, Sky had issued a convertible bond that later ended up with Abra and included an option on a stake. In November 2025, the group announced it would integrate Sky. As of summer 2026, the authorities in Brazil and Chile had approved, while the decision in Peru was still pending – check the companies’ announcements for the current status.

In July 2026, Abra also announced an order for 20 Embraer E195-E2s for its airlines, plus purchase rights for further aircraft. Which company gets which jets was not public in detail at press time. That means that after Airbus and Boeing, the Brazilian manufacturer Embraer also joins the group fleet – how to tell the E-Jet generations apart is explained in the article Telling Embraer E-Jets apart.

How to identify the right operator

At the Abra Group, attribution is usually easier than at European groups, because Avianca and GOL differ clearly in color and type. It gets tricky among the Avianca companies themselves. With these steps, you arrive at a clean sighting.

Where to see the group in Europe

In Central Europe, the Abra Group is not an everyday visitor. If you are specifically looking for Avianca, your best bet is Spain: the red 787-8 flies from Bogotá to Madrid-Barajas and Barcelona-El Prat, among others. Routes and frequencies change with the schedules – check the current status before your trip. In Madrid, you also have a chance at Wamos widebody jets at their home airport.

You practically never see GOL jets in Europe so far, since the 737 fleet is geared toward Brazil, South America and North America. That may change with the announced A330-900s, for which GOL has also named Lisbon and Paris – check the current schedule before planning. If you want both brands in your logbook, it is best to plan a trip to Latin America or to Florida: at Miami Airport, Avianca, Avianca Cargo and GOL regularly meet. For comparison, take a look at the LATAM Airlines Group, the Abra Group’s biggest rival on the continent.

Conclusion

For spotters, the Abra Group is a group with two clear faces: Avianca in red with the Airbus A320 family and Boeing 787-8, GOL in orange with an all-Boeing 737 fleet so far. Above them stands a young holding company registered in England, which brought both airlines together after surviving Chapter 11 and keeps growing with Wamos Air, Sky Airline and the Embraer order. If you read livery, registration and callsign together, you assign every sighting correctly – even when a red Airbus carries an N on the fuselage.