Beginning on October 1st this year, LATAM will increase its flight frequency between Santiago de Chile and Asunción. The additional flights will be on Monday and Friday, the only days of the week not currently served with a direct link.
The flights linking the capitals of Chile and Paraguay will rise from five days a week to daily operations in response to increasing customer demand. The 977-mile link is currently operated by LATAM Airlines Paraguay using its 174-seat Airbus A320-200s.
The flight departs Silvio Pettirossi International Airport (ASU), which serves Paraguay's capital city, Asunción, alongside the nearby town of Clorinda, Argentina, at 10:50 AM and arrives in Chile at 1:40 PM. The return leg of the journey leaves Santiago de Chile's Airport Comodoro Arturo Merino Benitez (SCL) at 3:50 PM, arriving back at Silvio Pettirossi International Airport (ASU) two and half hours later at 6:25 PM.
The airport pair currently faces no direct competition.
The airline holding company is currently in the process of completing its voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in the US. The restructuring process has seen the group increase flights, reduce costs, and streamline its fleet. LATAM Airlines announced it had begun the final phase of the process, which will see the company will list 605 billion shares in Chile to generate an estimated US$8 billion over the next several months.
The LATAM Group has already reached full passenger recovery in Columbia this year. It predicts that demand will return to 2019 levels in Brazil and Ecuador by the end of the third quarter. In addition to Santiago, LATAM Paraguay operates flights from the Paraguayan capital to Lima, Peru, and Sao Paulo, Brazil.
From Santiago de Chile, the airline group also recently restarted flights to Easter Island. Scheduled commercial passenger flights to the most isolated airport were suspended for 27 months due to the Coronavirus pandemic. LATAM continued to fly a weekly cargo operation in the meantime and oversaw the delivery of some 19,700 COVID-19 to Rapa Nui. In coordination with the Chilean government, the airline also carried out seven passenger charter flights which transported around 4,000 people over the interim. The island was previously linked to Santiago de Chile with 11 weekly flights.
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Other cost-saving measures include the reduction of single-use plastics onboard the flight. The airline previously committed to eliminating all single-use plastics by 2023 and announced Thursday it had met 75% of its target objective. The group has attributed the cuts to replacing plastics with more sustainable materials such as bamboo cutlery, reusable trays, certified sustainable paper cups, and reusable amenity bags in premium classes.
LATAM is also looking to reduce operating costs by investing in more fuel-efficient aircraft. The airline group announced a large order of 17 A321neo aircraft at the 2022 Farnborough Airshow. The latest order brings the carrier's total orders in the Airbus A320neo family to 100. The next-generation A321neo incorporates updated engines and Sharklets to deliver more than 20% fuel and CO2 savings alongside a 50% noise reduction.
The group also endorsed Airbus' upcoming A321XLR plane at the airshow. The aircraft will provide an increased range of up to 4,700 nautical miles (5,408 miles), equating to a flight time of 11 hours. Up to 12 aircraft ordered at the airshow are expected to be of the ultra-long-range variant. Simple Flying previously looked at where LATAM could fly the plane once delivered.
Source: Aviacionline