LATAM Airlines Suspends Direct Flights to London from Lima: Impact and Results in 2024

2024-02-25 23:36:00

At the beginning of 2024, the airline LATAM Airlines suspended its direct flights to London from Lima, a month after starting trips on this new route. The interruption was due to the English aviation authority applying an operational restriction after the start of said service (December 1, 2023). For the first year of this route, the company planned to transport 75,000 passengers on the aforementioned round trip connection, thus adding 150,000 passengers transported.

In dialogue with Gestión, the CFO of the LATAM Group, Ramiro Alfonsín, stated that the cancellation of this itinerary responded to a measure beyond the company’s control. Regarding the possible impact on the results expected by the holding company for this year, he stated that it “is not significant.”

“46% of the LATAM Group’s passenger revenues come from international operations, which means that US$5,000 million generate income from the international segment, therefore, a route like Lima-London is not a route that is impacting or affecting the guidance for 2024 or much less, but it is a route that we would eventually like to return to,” he said.

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For the next 11 months, the airline forecasts growth in its passenger operations between 12% and 14% (average in available seat kilometers), surpassing pre-pandemic levels in the first quarter of this year. The cancellation of the Lima-London route will be during the period from February to March 2024, specifically between February 2 and March 30.

He added that affected passengers have been given alternatives to be transported on other routes.

READ ALSO: Latam Airlines cancels flights at Jauja Airport due to damage to the runway

LATAM results in Peru

Regarding the Peru operation in 2023, Alfonsín observed a differentiated behavior by semester. Thus, he highlighted growth in the second half of the year, after the first months were impacted by the social upheaval that the country went through.

“Latam has been investing steadily in Peru and we continue to do so. There are new routes that are being implemented, while connectivity continues to improve. With Delta, for example, the Lima-Atlanta route has been established. We do not give details of how much we are going to grow by country, but we are going to continue advancing in Peru because it is an important market for the organization,” he declared.

READ ALSO: Latam posts quarterly profit a year after the end of restructuring

In 2023, the number of passengers transported in the domestic markets of its subsidiaries in Chile, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru increased by 10.7%, along with a strong increase in international traffic, which registered a growth of 50.1% in these markets in passengers transported compared to 2022.

Added to these results is that its market share in Peru went from 62% to 64%. The group had total revenues of US$11,789 million, 23.9% more than 2022, explained by a 33.8% increase in passenger revenues. Likewise, it recorded a net profit of US$582 million, with an adjusted operating margin of 11.3%.

Last year, 35% of passenger revenue came from LATAM Airlines Brasil’s domestic operations; while 19% of the domestic income of the subsidiaries that operate in Chile, Ecuador, Peru and Colombia, and 46% of international operations.

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