The Export-Import Bank of the United States (US Exim) has issued a US$45.5mn loan to Brazilian airline GOL.

The finance will be used to purchase maintenance service from Delta TechOps, a subsidiary of Delta Airlines. The loan comes despite the pending legal action Delta is taking against US Exim, as GTR reported recently. Furthermore, GOL is partly owned by Delta.

US Exim chairman Fred Hochberg, no doubt in an attempt to highlight the disconnect between the loan and the litigation, says of the transaction: “Supporting American service exports is a critical component of what we do here at US Exim, and I am pleased that our financing will help support high-quality jobs for Delta employees in Atlanta.”