From 28 October, South America’s LATAM Airlines Group will bring back its nonstop Sydney-Santiago flight, operating four times a week.
In addition to this, the Sydney-Auckland-Santiago route will continue its service six times a week.
The nonstop Sydney-Santiago flight will save around four hours of flight time.
In 2023, LATAM also reinstated its nonstop Melbourne Santiago service.
All LATAM Australia flights are operated by the airline’s Boeing 787-9 aircraft, seating 30 in business class and up to 283 in economy class.
LATAM has two 787-9 cabin configurations, with the older 2-2-2 configured business cabin operating on certain dates.
LATAM’s Australian operations were paused in April 2020 due to the pandemic, and flights from Sydney via Auckland to Santiago restarted in March 2022.
Sydney airport saw more than 38 million passengers pass through its terminals in 2023, just 13 per cent shy of the annual record of 44.4 million passenger set pre-pandemic in 2019.
In the first three months of the year, LATAM group transported 20.2 million passengers, which represents an increase of 19.4 per cent compared to the same quarter of 2023.
This followed a 32.5 per cent increase in international passengers.
In terms of capacity, LATAM Group carriers offered 17.5% more capacity in the market in the first three months of 2024 compared to 2023. This exceeded the airline’s 2019 capacity offered by 1.2 per cent.
