The tie-up comes as LATAM Airlines Group anticipates restoring 72% of pre-pandemic capacity in January.
LATAM Airlines Group and Virgin Atlantic signed a codeshare agreement that will include Virgin placing its code on LATAM’s London Heathrow (LHR)-São Paulo Guarulhos (GRU) route and building on an existing interline agreement between the carriers.
LATAM passengers will be able to connect via LHR to Virgin flights destined for Delhi (DEL), Hong Kong (HKG) and Tel Aviv (TLV) among others, according to Virgin. The UK carrier will also place its code on flights from GRU to 12 airports in Brazil, including Belo Horizonte (CNF), Brasilia (BSB), Curitiba (CWB), Florianopolis (FLN), Fortaleza (FOR), Goiania (GYN), Londrina (LDB), Porto Alegre (POA), Recife (REC), Rio de Janeiro (GIG), Salvador (SSA) and Vitoria (VIX).
“As we recover from the pandemic, partnerships are more important than ever, and we look forward to building on the incredibly successful interline relationship [with LATAM] we have had in place for a number of years,” Virgin chief commercial officer Juha Jarvinen said. “ We also see opportunities beyond Brazil and look forward to expanding our relationship even further [in the future] to serve destinations throughout South America, including [destinations in] Peru and Colombia.”
He added that “there is pent up demand for long-haul travel” and “we also expect to capture demand from corporate travel heading to São Paulo, the commercial capital of Brazil.”
Capacity Recovery
Meanwhile, LATAM is expecting to operate 72% of its January 2019 capacity levels this month, but cautioned that a downward revision is possible “depending” on the trajectory of the omicron variant of the coronavirus.
The anticipated January capacity mark would be a slight uptick in terms of capacity restoration compared to December 2021, when Latin America’s largest airline company flew 70.1% of its December 2019 capacity. LATAM’s average December load factor was 82% across its network.
LATAM noted that Neiva (NVA), Colombia, and Loja (LOH), Ecuador, are new network points being added to the airline group’s network this month. The Santiago de Chile-based carrier will also resume seasonal service on the Santiago (SCL)-Punta del Este (PDP), Uruguay, route in January.
By the end of January, LATAM will connect 132 destinations in 18 countries.
