LATAM cargo expands its freight network in Europe

Published: Wednesday, May 9, 2018

LATAM Cargo, the leader in cargo transportation to, from and within Latin America, recently opened two direct cargo routes from Brussels and from Madrid to South America, with two and one weekly frequencies respectively, making the company the only airline to offer full-freighter service between these cities and the region.

April, 2018. LATAM Cargo recently launched direct cargo service from Brussels and from Madrid to South America. This new services are part of the company’s long-term objective of providing customers with a network that meets their cargo requirements between Europe and South America onboard passenger and freighter aircraft. Accordingly, the company expanded its freighter service from two to four cities, thus becoming the only airline to offer direct freighter operation on the new routes.

The decision came in response to the region’s growing demand as well as the need to provide alternatives to avoid the rising congestion levels at European airports. Brussels was selected to absorb the high traffic of pharmaceutical products through ‘PHARMA’, a service distinguished by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) with the CEIV certification, which positioned our company as the first airline in the Americas to obtain it.

The dedicated and careful service provided by ‘PHARMA’ coupled to the direct freighter routes to South America ensure shorter transportation time for these sensitive items and therefore constitute an enormous competitive advantage for the Pharmaceutical laboratories that have entrusted LATAM Cargo with their products. The company also plans to carry other kinds of merchandise on its two weekly flights towards the region.

For its part, the Madrid market has seen an increase in the transportation of traditional industrial products, as well as other services like parcel delivery, e-commerce and textiles, all of which require expanded capacity and just-in-time logistics. Although LATAM Cargo already has an extensive belly network across Europe, its commitment to meet its customers’ needs led it to inaugurate a freighter-only weekly frequency from Madrid to Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Santiago, Chile. The new service will further consolidate the company’s excellent schedule with greater capacity.

“Our strategy in Europe seeks to strengthen our network and position us as the leader in air freight service to South America. We are very optimistic about our new direct freighter routes from Brussels and Madrid. And our customers’ enthusiastic response has led us to consider the possibility of increasing our current schedule,” said Guido Henke, Commercial Director – Europe.

For his part, Claudio Torres, International Commercial Director – South-America, highlighted the benefits of these new routes. “By expanding our network we are in a position to offer more and better alternatives to our customers. This is particularly important for the South American market, where we export fresh, temperature-sensitive products that require shorter transportation periods.”

LATAM Cargo offers six daily departures onboard its passenger fleet from different European cities and direct Freighter service to South America from four cities in the continent: Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Brussels and Madrid.