LATAM Airlines Group announced on Thursday four new routes across the Americas plus the increase in weekly flight frequencies in one of its flagship passenger services, the route between Santiago de Chile International Airport (SCL) and Rapa Nui’s Mataveri International Airport (IPC).
Four new routes starting in April
Yesterday, LATAM Airlines announced the start of flights between Bogota (BOG) and Orlando (MCO), Guayaquil (GYE), and Bogota, Santiago de Chile, and Porto Alegre (POA), as well as Lima (LIM) and Brasilia (BSB). These four new routes will allow the company to improve connectivity in Latin America and beyond.
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In particular, the service between Bogota and Orlando is the second announced route after the US approved LATAM’s Joint Venture Agreement with Delta Air Lines. The first announced route was São Paulo Guarulhos-Los Angeles. The Bogota-Orlando service will start in July with daily flights operated by LATAM Airlines Colombia, employing its Airbus A320 fleet with the capacity to carry 174 passengers.
Paola Penarete, Vice President of North America, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Asia at LATAM Airlines, said this new route is crucial to the expansion of the company’s network from the United States. Delta Air Lines has announced it will operate the seasonal route between New York JFK Airport (JFK) and Rio de Janeiro Galeão International Airport (GIG) as of December 16, 2023, as part of the Joint Venture.
The other three routes will begin in April. LATAM Airlines Ecuador will operate the Guayaquil-Bogota service with seven weekly frequencies. The Santiago-Porto Alegre route will have three weekly frequencies and be operated by LATAM Airlines Group. Finally, the Lima-Brasilia route will be served by LATAM Airlines Peru with daily flights.
Increasing connectivity to Rapa Nui
On Thursday, LATAM Airlines announced it will increase the number of weekly frequencies on one of its most iconic routes, Santiago de Chile-Rapa Nui. This domestic service is unique, as LATAM is the only airline to serve the Chilean island in the Pacific. Air service is essential for the community living in Rapa Nui. It is the only gateway entry for the many tourists looking to visit the destination, known globally for its moai.
As of February, LATAM Airlines will add a new frequency on the Santiago-Rapa Nui route, totaling six flights per week, the company said in a statement. Flight LA841 is currently operated onboard LATAM Chile’s Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet, mostly the -9 variant.
LATAM Airlines in January
The South American company carried 5.98 million passengers in January 2023, according to its latest stats. That number is a 15% increase versus 2022. In Brazil alone, LATAM had 2.84 million domestic passengers (14.2% growth compared to 2022). Across the company’s Spanish-speaking countries (Chile, Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador), LATAM had 2.13 million passengers (a 0.4% decrease versus January 2022), and internationally, the company carried one million passengers, the largest increase versus last year (76.5%).
LATAM Airlines' load factor in January was 81.1% on its flights across the Americas and beyond. This carrier is the only operator in Latin America to serve Oceania, and by the end of this year, it will also fly to Africa once it resumes its services to Johannesburg.
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