Brazilian low-cost airline Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes said on Tuesday fourth-quarter profit fell by nearly half due to flight cancellations and delays that reduced its load factor.

Net income, calculated under U.S. accounting rules, fell to 92.7 million reais ($43.4 million) from 170.6 million reais a year earlier and 190 million reais in the 2006 third quarter.

For the whole of 2006, Gol reported a net profit of 569.1 reais, up from 513.2 million reais in 2005.

Brazilian airlines were hit twice during the peak year-end holiday travel season. Air traffic controllers staged work slow-downs in November, and nearly 40 percent of flights were delayed early in December because of faulty air control equipment in Brasilia.

Gol estimated that it lost 150 million reais in revenue in the fourth quarter and saw its costs rise by 41 million reais because of higher fuel consumption and expenses related to the canceled flights.

The company said ticket sales slumped 30 percent in December from November, and the number of no-show passengers rose because of "negative publicity" related to the flight delays.

Load factor and yields in the fourth quarter were hurt by "the bottlenecks in air traffic in the country's main airports," Gol said in its earnings statement.

The airline's load factor fell to 67.9 percent from 74.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2005, though its market share of Brazil's domestic air travel rose to 37 percent from 30 percent, Gol said.

Its main rival, TAM Linhas Aereas, finished the quarter with a 49 percent share of the domestic market.

Brazil's air traffic has faced repeated troubles since Sept. 29, when a Boeing 737 flown by Gol clipped wings with a business jet over the Amazon, causing the 737 to spin out of control and crash into the jungle, killing all 154 people on board.

(Published by Reuters, January 30, 2007)