In 2022, LATAM Brazil will serve a record number of Brazilian airports, the airline has just announced. The South American carrier has been dominating the Brazilian domestic market in the last couple of months, and it plans to continue recovering next year. Let’s investigate further.
LATAM’s plans in 2022
LATAM Brazil will launch flights in at least six new destinations in 2022. The company is already selling tickets to fly to Montes Claros, Juiz de Fora, Presidente Prudente, Caxias do Sul, Cascavel, and Sinop, its six new destinations across Brazil.
These new destinations will receive LATAM’s flights in March 2021. Once they are inaugurated, LATAM would be flying to 56 airports across Brazil, representing the most extensive domestic map route of the company’s recent history.
Diogo Elias, Sales and Marketing Director at LATAM Brazil, said,
“Thanks to the reorganization process (under Chapter 11), LATAM became more efficient and competitive. It has allowed us to start growing again in Brazil. We should start 2022 by recovering 100% of our pre-pandemic domestic capacity, and, once it is done, we would have never flown to more destinations than today. (This recovery) would benefit the travelers the most because they will have more options to fly through Brazil.”
Why these destinations?
Currently, LATAM Brazil is offering 18,128 flights in December 2021. The airline is offering 3.2 million seats across the country. According to Cirium, LATAM Brazil offers 15.3% fewer flights and 14% fewer seats than two years ago.
According to Brazil’s Civil Aviation authorities, LATAM Brazil has carried 17.2 million domestic passengers in 2021. It has a 31.49% market share, surpassed only by Azul (37.15% share).
Next year, the airline is eyeing six new domestic destinations across Brazil. As of December 2021, these destinations have 1,130 scheduled flights operated by Azul Linhas Aereas and GOL.
Azul operates the two main routes to LATAM’s recently announced destinations. These routes are Campinas-Presidente Prudente (with 101 scheduled flights this month) and Belo Horizonte-Montes Claros (with 100 flights).
GOL’s main route in these markets is between Sao Paulo Guarulhos and Cascavel with one daily flight.
What do we know about LATAM’s new routes?
LATAM will start flying to Montes Claros from São Paulo Guarulhos on March 29. It will have a daily flight operated by Airbus A319 and A320 aircraft.
To Juiz de Fora, LATAM will launch flights starting on April 5. The airline will also use the A319 and A320 in the route from Guarulhos. Once LATAM flies to Montes Claros and Juiz de Fora, the airline will cover the four leading destinations in Brazil’s state of Minas Gerais.
On April 12, LATAM will start flying from Guarulhos to Presidente Prudente using its A319 and A320 fleet. One week later, on April 19, the airline will launch its route to Caxias do Sul, using the A320 fleet exclusively.
Finally, the routes to Cascavel and Sinop will start on April 26 and May 3, 2022, both with Airbus A319 aircraft. One final note, LATAM won’t fly from Guarulhos to Sinop; instead, it will do it from Brasilia.
LATAM will only compete with GOL Linhas Aereas in the first five routes. Currently, GOL serves 171 flights on these routes. Finally, the route Brasilia-Sinop is presently uncontested.
Do you plan to fly with LATAM Brazil next year? Let us know in the comments below.
