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LATAM Boeing 787-9
LATAM Airlines Group has opted to order 10 Boeing 787-9 widebodies after recently issuing a brighter financial outlook for 2024.
Boeing said the South American airline group—which has affiliates in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru—operates 37 787-8s and-9s and, including this latest order, expects to grow the fleet to 52 787 widebodies by 2030. The order includes options for five additional aircraft.
“This order will enable us to receive at least two aircraft of this model each year from 2025 until the end of the decade,” said LATAM CFO Ramiro Alfonsin.
During the company’s recent investor day on Oct. 22, and prior to this latest order, LATAM executives said the airline group had 125 aircraft on order through 2030, with more than 80% sourced directly from Airbus and Boeing.
Of 106 incoming narrowbodies, 63% will be Airbus A321neos. LATAM expects delivery of 22 aircraft in 2025 (20 narrowbodies and two widebodies), 15 in 2026 (13 narrowbodies and two widebodies), and 85 between 2027 and 2020 (70 narrowbodies and 15 widebodies). Among them will be a dozen XLRs beginning in 2027. The airline is planning for three additional narrowbodies before the year-end.
“If I were to purchase aircraft today and didn’t have our orderbook, I’d probably receive aircraft after five years from now. It’s very difficult to find delivery slots before that, and we’re seeing that lessors are running out of capacity and space also to allocate leases,” Alfonsin said during the company’s investor day. “But that’s not the situation of LATAM.”
LATAM’s fleet currently numbers 341 aircraft, comprising 56 widebodies, 263 narrowbodies and 22 dedicated cargo aircraft.
The company also has revised its financial guidance upward for this year. LATAM now expects adjusted EBITDAR (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization and restructuring/rent costs) of $3-$3.15 billion for the full year, versus prior projections of $2.75-3.05 billion. Capacity measured in available seat-kilometers is expected to be up by 15-16% year-over-year in 2024 and is projected to grow by high single digits in 2025 and mid-to-high single digits in 2026.
“We’re going to be a $3 billion company in 2024,” Alfonsin told analysts and investors. “That’s 40% more than what we had pre-pandemic and that was the norm for us ... today, the company is growing. It’s growing profitably, and we’re generating 40% more EBITDAR than we used to.”
The company’s investor day coincided with its return to the New York Stock Exchange after emerging from bankruptcy protection in late 2022.
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