LATAM Airlines Group has announced it will further reduce its freighter fleet capacity given continued declines in cargo revenue. In its consolidated financial results for 4Q16, the South American carrier conglomerate said its cargo operation's full-year revenue had declined by 16.5% from approximately USD1.329 billion in 2015, to approximately USD1.110 billion in 2016.
The Group said that while it had been affected by the slowdown in the export of salmon, flowers, and asparagus among other products to North America, it had seen a slight improvement in imports from North America and Europe to Brazil, as a result of the appreciation of the Brazilian Real.
As such, LATAM Airlines Group has decided to modify previous plans and effect further cuts to its B777-F fleet in service with LATAM Cargo Chile (UC, Santiago de Chile). While it had intended to operate six B767-300Fs and two B777Fs at the end of this year, it has now decided to cut the number of B777s to just one.
"LATAM and its affiliates continue working to adjust freighter capacity, while focused on maximizing the belly utilization of the passenger fleet," it said.
