GOL downgraded to B from B+ by S&P

Brazilian airline Gol Linhas Aereas has had its corporate credit rating downgraded by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services to ‘B’ from ‘B+’ and the airline has been removed from CreditWatch negative. S&P predicts that “cash flows at Brazilian airline Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes S.A. (GOL) will remain weak in 2012 due to higher fuel and leasing costs, and that recovery in 2013 will come gradually, at an uncertain pace”. The stable outlook now assigned to the B rating, S&P says, “reflects our assumption that the company’s efforts to improve operations, mostly by reducing capacity, will result in operating profitability by