BRASILIA, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Brazilian airlines Gol

and Azul should stop making public

comments about a potential merger unless they are prepared to

formally pursue one, a senior official at Brazilian antitrust

regulator CADE told Reuters.

"They should stop talking about a merger if they're not

going to actually pursue it or formally notify us of a merger,"

CADE President Gustavo Augusto said in an interview late on

Friday.

CADE last week ordered the companies to formally notify the

agency of their May 2024 codeshare agreement for cross-selling

tickets and integrating their loyalty programs, and barred them

from extending the partnership to additional routes.

That order did not require the two aviation companies to

provide information about a potential merger, but Augusto made

clear CADE's concern about the market impact of plans announced

prematurely and subsequently left unresolved.

"When you're a publicly traded company with a dominant

market position, you need to be concerned and cautious with your

communications," Augusto said. "You shouldn't announce a merger

and acquisition that isn't ready and hasn't been submitted to

regulatory authorities."

Earlier this year, Azul and Abra, the majority investor in

Gol and Avianca, announced that they had signed a non-binding

memorandum of understanding to potentially combine their

Brazilian operations.

They said the proposed combination aimed to strengthen

operations, with both airlines claiming 90% route

complementarity - a situation CADE would need to verify should

the deal proceed.

In a written response to Reuters on Monday, Azul said it was

going to analyze CADE's decision regarding the codeshare

agreement and denied any "gun-jumping" practices, in which firms

engage in pre-merger integration without regulatory approval.

Gol said that codesharing is standard practice in the

airline industry and added that the company has always respected

regulatory decisions.

Both airlines declined to comment on potential merger

plans.

Top executives at both companies have indicated in recent

months that they were prioritizing their respective

restructuring processes before any potential combination. The

airlines have not publicly abandoned the possibility of a

merger.

Azul filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S.

in May, just days before Gol exited its own restructuring

process.