GOL Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes S.A. emerged from Chapter 11 on June 6, 2025 under a confirmed plan that equitized roughly $1.48 billion of senior notes and reset the Brazilian airline's capital structure, though the case has returned to the bankruptcy court on remand after a December 1, 2025 district-court decision struck the plan's third-party release and corresponding injunction while leaving the economic terms intact.
GOL and its affiliated debtor entities filed in the Southern District of New York on January 25, 2024 (Chapter 11 Voluntary PetitionDkt. 1) before Judge Martin Glenn, after COVID-era deferrals that the Brazilian government never backstopped with direct airline aid calcified into structural insolvency. Per the First Day DeclarationDkt. 11, accumulated lease, tax, and regulatory arrears collided with fuel-price volatility, BRL depreciation, tightening Brazilian credit markets through 2023, and Boeing 737 MAX delivery and MRO disruptions that constrained available capacity. As of December 31, 2023, GOL carried roughly $3.5 billion in assets against $8.3 billion in liabilities and approximately $4.2 billion in funded indebtedness, anchored by $1.2 billion of 18% 2028 Senior Secured Exchangeable Notes.
To stabilize operations, the debtors put in place up to $1.0 billion of superpriority senior secured priming DIP financing together with final cash-collateral authority early in the case, buying time for a negotiated restructuring built on inter-credor settlements rather than a contested sale. The Confirmation OrderDkt. 1646 memorialized those settlements in the Fifth Modified Third Amended Joint Chapter 11 Plan: the Abra Settlement equitized the bulk of Abra Group's secured claims and delivered 100% of the new equity to benefit general unsecured creditors; the 2026 Settlement resolved roughly $252.6 million of 2026 Senior Secured Notes claims; and the Whitebox Settlement resolved disputes over the 2024 Senior Exchangeable Notes. Impaired noteholder classes received a mix of take-back instruments — including $600 million of non-exchangeable and $250 million of exchangeable take-back notes for the 2028 Notes class — exit notes, amended glide notes, and reinstated debentures, with DIP facility claims satisfied in cash or exit notes upon effectiveness.
GOL emerged on June 6, 2025 with up to $550 million of new-money exit financing and Abra Group retaining controlling shareholder status, completing a roughly sixteen-month reorganization. The post-emergence posture is now contested: on December 1, 2025, U.S. District Judge Denise Cote granted the U.S. Trustee's appeal, reversed the confirmation order solely as to the third-party release and corresponding injunction, and remanded for further proceedings — leaving the plan's economic architecture undisturbed while the scope of non-debtor releases remains the open issue on remand.
