LATAM Brasil is about to debut a new widebody on its routes, the Boeing 787-9. The aircraft, which flew on Chilean LATAM, arrived in the country last week to be prepared to fly with the Brazilian airline.
Although relatively smaller than the Airbus A350-900, the Dreamliner will be a worthy replacement for the model used until then by the Brazilian LATAM, but which ended up withdrawing from service at the beginning of the year.
According to Contato Radar, the first Boeing 787-9 received was flying with LATAM Chile since 2019 with the registration CC-BGO and is configured with 303 seats, which will be reduced to 300 seats as determined by ANAC, the Brazilian civil aviation authority, during its approval.
In Brazil, the aircraft should receive the PS-LAA registration and debut on São Paulo-Manaus flights so that crews can familiarize themselves with their systems before taking on international routes.
The Chilean LATAM’s main long-range jet, the Boeing 787 took over flights from the Brazilian division, such as the São Paulo-Tel Aviv route, but with crew from Chile.
The change in strategy was long overdue since the option for the A350, still made by TAM, ended up not going in line with the plans of the Chilean partners.
After the merger, LATAM honored the order with Airbus, but the new-generation jet has had an unstable career since 2015, when the first plane was delivered.
Unlike the A330-200, which were eventually replaced by the Boeing 767-300, the A350 remained alongside the Boeing 777-300ER as an aircraft destined for the most demanding routes.
Now the Boeing 787 will have the role of complementing this task, as the second aircraft with more seats in the company, only behind the 777, with 410 seats.
