LATAM Airlines Completes Restructuring, Exits Chapter 11

Latin America’s leading airline group, LATAM Group, announced that it successfully completed its financial restructuring process in the US, which started in May 2020. LATAM Group exits Chapter 11 as a more efficient group and with a modernized fleet, the company said.

“Today marks an important milestone for LATAM and our stakeholders. We are pleased that we have completed a significant transformation and emerged from our financial restructuring process with a strengthened financial position and a renewed commitment to operational excellence,” said Roberto Alvo, CEO, LATAM Airlines Group. The Chilean airline group emerged with over US$2.2 billion of liquidity, about US$3.6 billion less debt on its balance sheet (equivalent to a 35 percent debt reduction from the pre-filing period), and the support of key incumbent and new shareholders, the company said.

“As a group with a dynamic team of 30,000 employees and an unrivaled connectivity network, we look forward to continuing to offer passengers the best alternative for travel to, from and within South America and to contribute in the broader sense to the various countries in which we operate and their diverse interests,” said Alvo.

LATAM is the leading airline group in Latin America, with subsidiaries in five domestic markets in the region: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, in addition to international operations within Latin America and to the EU, the US, Caribbean, Oceania and, in the near future, Africa, as LATAM Airlines Brazil will resume the Sao Paulo-Johannesburg route by mid-2023.

By October 2022, the group had reached 144 destinations in 22 countries. LATAM expects to close the year with a global operation increase of 85 percent compared with 2019 (measured in available seats miles). Between 2021 and 2022, the group added 10 new destinations in Brazil and expects to operate 36 new routes by 2023, the company said.

LATAM Cargo and its cargo subsidiaries are in the middle of an expansion plan that will allow them to increase their respective fleets from a current total of 11 Boeing 767-300F aircraft in 2019 to a total of 20 767-300F aircraft in 2024, which will improve the transportation options for customers.

Recently, LATAM Group entered a joint venture with Delta Air Lines that enables passengers to access over 300 destinations in the US, Canada and South America, including Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay. The agreement will enable the airlines to increase their levels of cooperation in those markets, increasing routes, improving connections and strengthening the frequent flier program benefits, according to LATAM. The airline flies to several destinations in Mexico, including Cancun and Mexico City.