LATAM Airlines Group has announced that it will invest USD2 billion in Brazil over the next two years, focusing on products, technologies passenger services, and aircraft maintenance activities.
During a meeting in Santiago de Chile between the company's management and Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, LATAM Airlines Brasil (JJ, São Paulo Congonhas) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Brazil’s Ministry of Labour (Ministério do Trabalho e Emprego - MTE) to train and employ workers mainly at the MRO facilities in São Carlos Francisco Pereira Lopez.
This agreement provides for a joint technical work plan to explore opportunities for training and employing specialised labour in Brazil in the coming months to turn São Carlos into a “true Brazilian aerospace hub”, said LATAM in a statement.
Despite recent reports that LATAM is being pressured to purchase new Embraer E2 jets, no announcement has been made so far. The Brazilian development bank (Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social - BNDES) recently said the discussions for separate new orders from LATAM Brasil and GOL Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes (G3, São Paulo Congonhas) were “very advanced.” Reportedly, Lula da Silva is adamant in securing aircraft orders for the local planemaker from the two Brazilian carriers (Azul Linhas Aéreas Brasileiras is already a customer of Embraer).
