South American Air Transport Market Welcomes Capacity Leap: LATAM Cargo and Avianca Cargo Deepen European and American Route Layout
With the deepening of global economic integration, South America, as an important agricultural production area, raw material supply base and emerging manufacturing center in the world, has increasingly frequent trade exchanges with European and North American markets. In order to meet the growing demand for air cargo, LATAM Cargo and Avianca Cargo, the two leaders in South America’s air cargo sector, have recently announced major route expansion and capacity upgrade plans. This series of initiatives not only significantly improves the cargo transportation capacity of transatlantic routes, but also marks the development of South American air logistics networks towards higher frequency, more professional and more sustainable directions.
LATAM Cargo: Strategic Deepening of Brazil to Europe Route
LATAM Cargo, one of the most influential air cargo operators in Latin America, recently officially opened a new cargo route connecting Brazil and Belgium. The opening of this route is regarded as a historic milestone in connecting South American and European freight markets.
1. Route architecture and aircraft configuration
The new route is operated by Boeing B767-300 all-cargo aircraft with long-range flight capability and high cargo capacity. The flight departs from Brazil, makes technical stops via Recife, an important transportation hub in northeastern Brazil, and finally arrives at Brussels, Belgium, the European logistics center. This route design makes full use of Recife’s geographical advantage as a “transatlantic springboard”, which not only ensures smooth sailing, but also provides convenient access for goods exports from northeastern Brazil.
2. Capacity Encryption and Network Expansion
In the initial stages of operation, the route is planned to operate three times a week to test market reaction and establish a stable operating rhythm. However, given the strong demand for transatlantic capacity, LATAM Cargo has a clear plan for intensification: it expects to increase the frequency of flights to one per day at the peak of cargo in mid-December. This move will increase LATAM Cargo’s total transatlantic all-cargo fleet to 15 flights per week, greatly easing the bottleneck of insufficient capacity in traditional passenger bellies.
3. Strategic significance and industry voice
Santiago álvarez, chief commercial officer of LATAM Cargo, said of the opening that the establishment of regular cargo routes from Brazil to Europe was a historic milestone in cargo connectivity between South America and Europe. He stressed that this is not only an extension of a physical route, but also a fulfillment of the company’s commitment to customers. In the future, the company will focus on providing more agile, reliable and efficient logistics solutions to continuously promote the sustainable development of international trade between the two continents by reducing transportation time and increasing flight density. For importers and exporters, this means a more stable supply chain guarantee, especially in the transportation of high value-added goods such as electronic products, pharmaceutical products and automobile parts, and a better service experience.
II. Avianca Cargo: Deep cultivation of perishable goods transportation, optimization of transportation capacity structure
Unlike LATAM Cargo, which focuses on trunk network expansion, Avianca Cargo (National Air Cargo of Colombia) focuses on capacity enhancement in market segments, especially in the transportation of perishables such as flowers, which South America prides itself on.
1. Fleet expansion and technology upgrades
To consolidate its leadership in perishable goods transport, Avianca Cargo recently introduced an Airbus A330 passenger cargo aircraft (P2F). The passenger to cargo model is especially suitable for loading large volume and high density cargo due to its spacious main cargo door design. With the addition of this new aircraft, Avianca Cargo has reached nine all-cargo aircraft, and the fleet structure is younger and more modern, better able to cope with the transportation needs of different cargo.
2. Specialized advantages of flower transportation
South America is an important exporter of flowers all over the world, especially Colombia and Ecuador, whose flowers are loved by European and American markets for their excellent quality. However, flower transportation has very high requirements for temperature, humidity and transportation timeliness. The newly introduced A330 freighter is equipped with an advanced environmental control system that maintains the optimum temperature in the cargo compartment throughout the flight, ensuring that delicate flowers remain fresh during long flights. This investment undoubtedly consolidates Avianca Cargo’s absolute advantage in the field of flower transportation.
3. route network synergy
At the same time of capacity increase, Avianca Cargo simultaneously optimized the route network. The company announced two new weekly flights on the prime route Quito-Miami-Maastricht-Zaragoza. This route runs through Tiedo (Ecuador), the flower producing area of South America, and through the transit hub of Miami in the United States to Maastricht (Netherlands) and Zaragoza (Spain), the freight distribution centers in Europe. The new flights not only increase the capacity supply, but also provide flower exporters with more flexible delivery options through high-frequency flight arrangements, effectively reducing inventory pressure and improving supply chain efficiency.
III. Future prospects for the South American air transport market
LATAM Cargo and Avianca Cargo reflect two trends in the South American air cargo market:
One is the “normalization” and “high frequency” of the backbone network. With the restructuring of global supply chains, stable all-cargo capacity has become the cornerstone of smooth trade. LATAM has increased the number of routes to once a day, indicating that the trade volume between South America and Europe is enough to support high-frequency logistics services, which lays a logistics foundation for deepening economic and trade cooperation between the two places.
The second is the “specialization” and “refinement” of the market segment. Avianca Cargo’s investment in flower transportation shows that logistics competition has shifted from a pure price war to a service war. Providing customized transportation environment and solutions for specific cargo categories has become the core weapon for differentiated competition of cargo aviation.
To sum up, whether it is LATAM Cargo’s transatlantic air bridge or Avianca Cargo’s flower green channel, it shows the vitality of South American aviation logistics enterprises. The expansion of these capacity and the upgrading of services not only reduce the logistics cost of enterprises, improve the transportation efficiency, but also provide strong wings for South American products to go to the world, helping the regional economy to occupy a more important position in the global trade map. For logistics practitioners and foreign trade enterprises, this is undoubtedly a significant positive signal, indicating the arrival of a more efficient and smooth new era of international trade.