Arriving from Sao Paulo for its America’s Demo Tour, A350 XWB MSN 002 landed in Campinas, Viracopos International Airport, Brazil for the first time ever . Flight test aircraft MSN 002 will travel to Bogota, Colombia, on July 9th, where it will complete the Latin America portion of its Demo Tour before heading to the United States. ©S. Ramadier/ Airbus
Santiago, Chile, 9 July 2015– While the new Airbus A350 is on its first Demo Tour of the Americas, LATAM Airlines Group S.A. and its subsidiaries, (“LATAM Airlines Group” or “the Company”), the leading airline group in Latin America, today reported its preliminary monthly traffic statistics for June 2015 compared to June 2014.
System passenger traffic increased by 1.9% while capacity increased by 2.3%. As a result, the Company’s load factor for the month decreased 0.4 points to 81.5%. International passenger traffic accounted for approximately 54% of the month’s total passenger traffic. Domestic passenger traffic in LATAM Airlines Group’s Spanish speaking operations (Chile, Argentina, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia) rose 5.4%, while capacity increased by 2.5%. As a consequence, the domestic passenger load factor increased 2.2 points to 78.3%.
Domestic passenger traffic in Brazil remained flat, while capacity increased by 3.4%. As a consequence, the domestic Brazil passenger load factor decreased 2.7 points to 78.1% largely because of the wide recession impacting Latin America’s largest economy.
International passenger traffic increased by 2.0%, while capacity increased by 1.6%. Accordingly, the international passenger load factor for the month increased 0.4 points to 84.6%. International traffic includes international operations of both LAN and TAM on regional and long haul routes.
Cargo traffic continues to be weak during the month of June, especially in Brazil domestic and international markets. As a result, cargo traffic for LATAM Airlines Group decreased 9.9% in June, and the cargo load factor decreased 4.4 points to 52.5%. We continue to adjust cargo capacity through a reduced freighter operation, which resulted in a decline of 2.3% of cargo ATKs in June.
Let’s recall here that TAM Airlines of Brazil is one of the launch customers of the Airbus A350. The company has so far 27 A350s on order, due to be delivered between the end of this year and 2019.
