In April it was announced that the LATAM Group will retire all of its Airbus A350-900s, which are operated exclusively in Brazil, consolidating its wide-body fleet in Boeing 767, 787 and 777.

However, the withdrawal of Airbus left a substantially large gap in terms of capacity of the Brazilian subsidiary.

Boeing 767-300ERs with capacity for 221 seats, Boeing 787-8s and -9s with capacity for 247 and 313 seats respectively operate in Peru, Chile and Colombia. This willingness of capacity helps to have an extensive long-haul route network, on demand.

Brazil is a giant market at the regional level, and LATAM strategically uses it as a nexus of destinations between Africa, Asia and Europe with South America, although it also has a good presence with the United States.

The retirement of the Airbus A350s reduces from 32 to 19 the wide-body aircraft in its fleet, which could significantly impact the frequencies and routes that the company operated prior to the pandemic. Only the Boeing 767 with capacity for 221 passengers and the Boeing 777-300ER with 410 seats remain.

The group has enough time to make the necessary changes as it is one of the countries with the most restrictions by other countries, which will delay the recovery of the international market in Brazil.

The solution: use the Chilean subsidiary’s Boeing 787s

While it was expected to happen, the problem was going to be the certification process. The aircraft are registered in Chile, therefore they cannot operate in the South American giant until they are recertified by ANAC Brazil.

According to our partner media, AEROIN, LATAM Brazil’s chief pilot, Alexandre Giannini, carried out the first certification steps for the Dreamliner in the country.

“The certification process with ANAC of the B787 in the JJ-Latam Brazil fleet is, in addition to motivation and career opportunities for the crew, an important step for the company towards efficiency and sustainability. Relevant boost in the aeronautical industry in Brazil,” stated Giannini.

On the other hand, Brazilian pilots are trained and qualified in the CAE simulator in Santiago in Chile.

Then, flights will begin in Brazil, but without the aircraft being transferred to the Brazilian division. This is possible thanks to an agreement between ANAC and DGAC, its Chilean counterpart, which allows the exchange of aircraft of the same group, provided that they are operated in a territory with national pilots from that place.

With this situation, the LATAM Airlines Group will have to distribute its 10 Boeing 787-8s and 15 Boeing 787-9s in four countries. Currently the flights from São Paulo (GRU) to Madrid (MAD) and Paris (CDG) are operated with the Dreamliner, but with Chilean crew. In Colombia it has flights from Bogotá to Miami, but they use the fifth freedom of the air, since the flight comes from Chile.

This leaves in Lima, Peru, Santiago in Chile and, in the future, São Paulo as the base of the Boeing 787 for its usual destinations.

Possible Boeing 787 routes in Brazil

As we mentioned before, the model is used with a Chilean crew to Madrid and Paris, after certification they will be the first destinations to be operated with a Brazilian crew.

Before the pandemic, Frankfurt in Germany; Orlando, Miami and New York in the United States and Johannesburg in South Africa were common destinations for the Airbus A350, which may be the next future destinations for the American model.