Latin America’s biggest airline targets lift from region’s growth

Latin America’s biggest airline is targeting ambitious growth in the coming decades, hoping to profit from expectations that the region will be among the world’s fastest-growing for air travel. Roberto Alvo, CE of Latam Airlines, said Latin America and the Caribbean were “under-developed” in aviation, with a 650mn population that is projected to fly just 480mn times this year. “That’s 0.6 passengers per inhabitant,” he told the Financial Times, adding that the airline hoped this would rise to “two and a half times, up to three times a year per inhabitant”. The carrier was one of the pandemic’s earliest corporate victims, filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York in May 2020 and embarking on a restructuring. Now, with the Chapter 11 process and pandemic behind him, Alvo is bullish about the group’s future, especially in Brazil, its biggest market where it has a near-40% market share. The nation “has big potential, it’s a country which is tremendously little visited for its size”, he said in an interview. “We are very optimistic about Brazil.” Boeing forecasts that passenger air traffic in Latin America, a region where cities are far apart and often separated by mountain ranges or forests, will grow 5% a year over the next two decades, faster than the Middle East, Europe or North America. It expects Latin America’s commercial aircraft fleet to almost double in size to more than 3,000 planes over the same period. As well as capitalising on its status as the region’s biggest airline, which already transports four out of 10 passengers in South America, Latam plans to add new international routes, introduce premium economy class on long-haul flights and renew part of its fleet.<br/>