LATAM Airlines Group said it has seen strong traffic growth this year, helped by a surge in returning international passengers.
The group’s affiliated airlines—based in Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru—carried a combined 32.8 million passengers for the first five months of 2024, up 16.6% versus the same period last year.
LATAM, meanwhile, unveiled plans to add frequencies on a number of routes to the U.S., noting a desire to buttress the LATAM-Delta Air Lines antitrust-immunized joint venture (JV).
International passengers carried from January through May rose 30.6% year-over-year to 4.8 million.
LATAM carriers flew 6.4 million passengers in May, up 11.2% over May 2023. Capacity was up 15.9% year-over-year for the month, with a 27.6% rise in international capacity. Consolidated load factor for the month was 81.4%, up 2.3 percentage points from 79.1% in May 2023.
From Oct. 27, flights between Santiago International Airport (SCL) in Chile and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) will grow from 6X-weekly to 7X-weekly. Also in October, LATAM will start operating between São Paulo Guarulhos Airport (GRU) in Brazil and LAX 4X-weekly, up from 3X-weekly currently.
The airline group will add three weekly frequencies between GRU and Orlando, Florida, in October, moving from 4X-weekly to 7X-weekly service on the route.
In November, service between SCL and Miami will grow from 12X-weekly to 13X-weekly, and then will be boosted again to 14X-weekly flights in December.
According to LATAM, JV partner Delta will fly the Atlanta-SCL route 2X-daily from Dec. 13 to Jan. 13, 2025, up from 1X-daily currently.
“The addition of new weekly flights reinforces the purpose of our agreement with Delta, which allows us to provide a better connection between countries in South and North America, enabling thousands of passengers to reach some of the most significant vacation destinations in the U.S.,” said Kamal Hadad, LATAM network director.
SkyTeam member Delta acquired a 20% stake in LATAM in 2019, and the airlines applied to regulatory authorities to operate a metal-neutral, antitrust-immunized JV for flights between the U.S. and South America. The U.S. Transportation Department gave the JV its final approval in October 2022.
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