LATAM Airlines on Friday announced it will resume its commercial flight from Brazil (South America) to South Africa (Africa) in July 2023. Passengers will be flown three times a week on the airline’s Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner fleet from São Paulo Guarulhos International Airport (GRU), Brazil, to Johannesburg International Airport (JNB), South Africa.
LATAM currently operates 212 international flights from its base in São Paulo Guarulhos, and the South African city will join the list of 20 international destinations the airline covers.
Flights To South Africa Halted Due to COVID
The airline stopped its commercial operations in South Africa following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Before the pandemic outbreak, LATAM was the only airline operating direct flights from South America to South Africa, which is about to resume.
LATAM Brazil’s Director of Sales and Marketing, Aline Mafra, told the press
“Johannesburg is another milestone in our international resumption movement, which is being carried out in a strategic way, expanding the offer where there is passenger demand. This flight will meet a corporate demand that has always been relevant between the countries, in addition to the potential tourism at the destination. A direct operation between the countries will undoubtedly be a differentiated product in the airline market.”
LATAM International Recovery
Johannesburg, South Africa, is not the only international destination the airline is recovering. LATAM will resume its direct flights to Boston in October 2022, bringing its international flight destinations to 21.
In the face of Covid-19 travel restrictions, the Latin American airline filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy after losing major cities it once covered across the globe.
Measuring the number of seats available as of September 2022, LATAM had recovered about 72% of its operational capacity in the international market.
Covering 20 (21 by the end of October) international destinations from the 26 they did before the COVID-19 pandemic is quite a wholesome recovery.
Other international destinations the airline covers from its base in Brazil include:
- Asunción
- Barcelona
- Bogotá
- Buenos Aires/Aeroparque,
- Buenos Aires/Ezeiza
- Mexico City
- Frankfurt
- Lima
- Lisbon
- London
- Madrid
- Mendoza
- Miami,
- Milan
- Montevideo
- New York
- Orlando
- Paris
- Rome
- Santiago
yes, thank you for this decision to restart your flights. I have been a traveler from Johannesburg to Sao Paolo for the last 5 years of at least 4 times per annum. I often shared my flights between Latam and SAA. so now i am looking forward to flying directly again instead of flying to the middle east first
Why not fly a figure of 8 via Rio and CapeTown as Varig and SAA did in the 1980s? Reversing the direction once a week allowed business traffic between São Paulo and Joberg and tourists between Rio and CT. The latter took us 6 to 8 hours as it is a lot closer than Joberg to SP.
It is about time, that Latam resume flights to South Africa, but please include Cape Town as a stopover!!!
It makes sense commercially and is on the way. There is an urgent need to connect South Africa to South America.