LATAM Airlines Brasil retires all A350s

LATAM Airlines Brasil (JJ, Sao Paulo Congonhas) has announced it will retire all of its eleven A350-900s with immediate effect as it transitions to an all-Boeing widebody fleet. “This decision, in addition to being a part of our transition to a smaller and more homogeneous fleet, also aims at improving the efficiency of our widebody operations during a period of decreased demand and lower capacity in our international business,” Chief Executive Jerome Cadier said in a letter to staff, leaked via social media. Cadier said the first seven A350-900s left the fleet during the week of April 5, 2021, while the remainder will retire this week. According to the ch-aviation fleets history module, LATAM Airlines Brasil has operated a total of twelve A350-900s since the delivery of the first unit in December 2015. Two aircraft were retired during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic and ferried for storage at Victorville in July and September 2020, respectively. The remaining ten aircraft remain in storage at Sao Paulo Guarulhos (seven units) and Belo Horizonte Tancredo Neves (three) airports. Flightradar24 ADS-B data indicates that the last revenue flight operated by LATAM’s A350-900 was on February 26, 2021, when PR-XTC (msn 35) flew from Manaus to Guarulhos. LATAM Airlines Group owns three of the A350s still stored in Brazil and one stored at Victorville airport, the ch-aviation fleets ownership module shows. The remaining aircraft are owned by AerCap (six) and BOC Aviation (one). Five of the aircraft were subleased to Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad Int’l) until March 2020 (two since 2017 and three since 2019). LATAM Airlines Brasil is the only group unit operating the A350s. Following the type’s retirement, its widebody fleet will comprise thirteen B767-300(ER)s and ten B777-300(ER)s. LATAM Airlines Perú operates a further fifteen B767-300(ER)s, while LATAM Airlines operates ten B787-8s and twelve B787-9s. The group still has two A350-1000s on firm order from Airbus. Twenty-percent-shareholder Delta Air Lines announced a deal to buy four A350-900s and take over a further ten orders from LATAM in 2019. The transaction concerning the four already delivered aircraft was cancelled in 2020 as the pandemic hit, with Delta paying USD62 million in compensation to the Latin American holding.