Tag Archives: SCL

Sky Airline of Chile retires its last Boeing 737-200

Sky Airline (Chile) (Santiago) on July 26 operated the last revenue flight of a Boeing 737-200. Three 737-200s were retired on July 26.

The first of the three airliners that finished their career was CC-CTK, performing flight SKU 055, departing Santiago (SCL) to Carriel Sur, Concepción Airport (SCIE/CCP) at 17:15 (local time). It returned to SCL as flight SKU 054.

Flight SKU 116 was flown from Santiago to Copiapó’s Desierto de Atacama airport (SCAT) using CC-CVI, and flew from there to Santiago as SKU 117 at 19:09.

The last flight was flight SKU 122, flown with CC-CTH. The flight took off from SCL for La Serena (SCSE/LSC), then to Copiapó and returning to Santiago around 22:00 (local). This flight marked the end of the era of 737s in SKY Airline service.

Thanks goes to Alvaro Romero for this information.

Sky Airline (Chile):

Sky Airline phases out its last Boeing 737-200s

Sky Airline (Chile) (Santiago) on July 3 2013 retired from scheduled operations three of its Boeing 737-200s: CC-CTO, CC-AAG and CC-ABD. Three 737-200s still remain in service: CC-CTH, CC-CTK and CC-CVI. However these last three aircraft will be retired by the end of July 2013. After that, the carrier will only operate Airbus A319s and A320s.

Copyright Photo: Alvaro Romero/ModoCharlie.com. Boeing 737-230 CC-CTK (msn 22402) completes its final approach back into the Santiago base.

Sky Airline (Chile):

Sky Airline of Chile to expand to Brazil in 2014

Sky Airline (Santiago) on June 7 received new authorization from the Brazilian aviation authorities for new route authority rights to operate between Chile and Brazil. The airline will start Brazilian flights in 2014.

Meanwhile the airline continues to convert its Boeing 737-200 fleet to more modern Airbus A319s and A320s. The company during May scrapped two more Boeing 737-200s (CC-CTI and CC-CTX).

Top Copyright Photo: Alvaro Romero/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A320-232 CC-ABV (msn 1400) arrives at the Santiago hub (please click on the photo for the full size view). All others by Sky Airline.

Sky Airline:

Route Map:

LATAM Airlines Group reports 1Q net income of $42.7 million, down 48.9%

LATAM Airlines Group (LAN Airlines) (TAM Linhas Aereas) (Santiago and Sao Paulo) has reported its financial results through March 31, 2013 for the first quarter:

HIGHLIGHTS

LATAM Airlines Group reported operating income of $114.2 million (US) for first quarter 2013, a 149.8% increase compared to the $45.7 million pro forma operating income in first quarter 2012. Operating margin reached 3.4%, an increase of 2.0 points compared to 1.4% in 2012. This result reflects a steady recovery in business operations as we advance in the process of achieving the expected synergies from the merger between LAN and TAM.

Net income reached $42.7 million for first quarter 2013, compared to a pro forma consolidated net income of $83.7 million for the same period in 2012, which represents a decrease of 48.9% mainly due to a foreign exchange gain of $133.4 million recognized at TAM during the first quarter 2012.

TAM continues to make significant progress in the turnaround of the domestic Brazil passenger operations, maintaining capacity discipline with a 9.2% reduction in ASKs during the first quarter 2013 as compared to the first quarter 2012. Healthy traffic growth of 3.4%,as well as improved market segmentation and revenue management practices have resulted in strong load factor improvements of 9.5 percentage points as compared to the first quarter 2012,reaching 77.7%. This led to a significant increase in revenue per ASK,as measured in Brazilian reais. Results in U.S. dollars were affected by a 13% depreciation of the Brazilian currency during the quarter as compared to the first quarter 2012. We remain convinced that capacity discipline and an adequate segmentation of the market will provide the basis for continued healthy load factors and a significant improvement in operating results in 2013.

We remain confident in our synergy target of between $600 and $700 million, to be fully achieved by the fourth year after the merger (June 2016). Important progress was made in recent months with the code share agreement signed between TAM and American Airlines as well as with LATAM’s election of oneworld as its global alliance. We have begun to harmonize the airlines’ frequent flyer programs,as well as advanced on cost initiatives related to contract renegotiations and process standardization. Furthermore, important synergies have been achieved through the coordination of the LAN and TAM cargo operations. We expect merger synergies to be between $250 and $300 million during 2013. However,we expect to continue to incur certain costs related to the integration process.

Total revenues in the first quarter 2013 reached $3,409.0 million compared to pro forma revenues of $3,360.2 million in first quarter 2012. The increase of 1.5% is a result of a 1.5% increase in passenger revenues and a 38.6% increase in other revenues, partially offset by a 3.2% decrease in cargo revenues. The slight increase in revenues reflects capacity reductions in the domestic Brazil passenger operations and a more challenging environment for international passenger operations, as well as weak market demand in the cargo business. Passenger and cargo revenues accounted for 84.2% and 13.5% of total revenues, respectively, in first quarter 2013.

During the first quarter 2013, LATAM received a total of 5 Airbus A320 family aircraft and 1 Boeing 767-300 passenger aircraft. Furthermore, the Company returned 1 Airbus A320-200 and sold 2 Airbus A318 aircraft.

Top Copyright Photo: Alvaro Romero/ModoCharlie.com. LAN Airlines’ Airbus A318-121 CC-CVR (msn 3390) carries special Telethon 2011 logo at Santiago. The snow-capped Andes Mountains are in the background.

LAN Airlines:

TAM Linhas Aereas:

Bottom Copyright Photo: Bernardo Andrade. TAM’s Airbus A319-132 PT-TMD (msn 4192) in the retrojet color scheme climbs away from Santos Dumont Airport in downtown Rio de Janeiro. Please click on the photo for the full-size view.

Copa Airlines is coming to Boston

Copa Airlines (Panama City) will the new destination of Boston and the Panama City-Boston route starting on July 10. The new spoke route will operate daily with Boeing 737-700 aircraft according to a report by Airline Route.

Copa Airlines:

Route Map:

Please click on the map for the full size view.

LAN Airlines is planning to commence nonstop Rio de Janeiro-Miami service on January 22

LAN Airlines (Chile) (LANTAM Airlines Group) (Santiago) is planning to introduce nonstop Rio de Janeiro – Miami flights using Boeing 767-300 ER aircraft starting on January 22 according to Airline Route.

LAN Airlines:

LAN acquires TAM, becomes the LATAM Airlines Group

LAN Airlines S.A. (Santiago) (which has been renamed LATAM Airlines Group S.A.) and TAM S.A. (Sao Paulo) on June 22 completed their exchange offer. The acquisition has created the LATAM Airlines Group S.A. LATAM Airlines Group S.A. will offer passengers more flights to more destinations than any other affiliated group of airlines in South America, initially reaching about 150 destinations in 22 countries and transporting cargo to 169 destinations in 27 countries.

As previously announced, the transaction was carried out through an exchange offer in which TAM’s shareholders could elect to exchange their TAM shares for LAN shares at a ratio of 0.9 LAN shares for each TAM share. The offered LAN shares will be delivered in the form of BDRs (Brazilian Depositary Receipts) in Brazil and ADRs (American Depositary Receipts) in the United States. The exchange offer, which was materialized with the auction on June 22, 2012, was subject to the condition that more than 2/3 of the TAM shares that participate in the offer agree with the deregistration of TAM as a public company in Brazil. This delisting condition was satisfied when 99.9% of the participant shares agreed with TAM’s deregistration. The tendered shares together with the TAM shares committed by the TAM Controlling Shareholders represented 95.9% of the total outstanding shares of TAM.

According to this report by Reuters, LATAM Airlines will decide within the next six months which airline alliance it will stay with. Currently LAN is a member of the OneWorld alliance, while TAM belongs to Star Alliance.

Read the full report: CLICK HERE

Top Copyright Photo: Alvaro Romero.

LAN Airlines:

TAM Linhas Aereas:

Bottom Copyright Photo: Marcelo F. De Biasi.

Chorus Aviation’s statement on its investment in Pluna

Chorus Aviation Inc. (Halifax) today (June 21) announced certain developments relating to Chorus’ investment in Pluna Líneas Aéreas Uruguayas S.A. (Montevideo).

In April 2010, Chorus (formerly the Jazz Air Income Fund) invested $15 million (USD) in Latin American Regional Aviation Holding Corporation (LARAH) in return for a 33.3% non-voting equity interest in the company, which translated into a 25% indirect ownership in Pluna. At the time of the investment, LARAH held an indirect 75% equity interest in Pluna; the Government of Uruguay held an indirect equity interest of 25%.

The Uruguayan government has taken control of Pluna, allowing the airline to continue operating. Chorus is working directly and cooperatively with the national government to produce and assess potential recapitalization and business plans for Pluna. As part of the proceedings, all of the shares in Pluna held indirectly by LARAH have been delivered in trust with the Montevideo Stock Exchange in return for certain conditions and indemnities from the Uruguayan government. There can be no assurances as to the extent of Chorus’ participation and involvement. Further, there can be no assurances that a successful recapitalization of Pluna will be accomplished, and if so, that Chorus will retain an equity stake or other investment therein.

Chorus is currently assessing the valuation of its original $15 million investment and how it will be accounted for in its second quarter financial disclosure planned for mid-August, 2012. The situation at Pluna has no effect on Jazz operations or current cash flows. Chorus will provide an update and share next steps upon the finalization of the review and will not speculate on the outcome or Pluna’s future.

Pluna:

Aerovías DAP to launch flights between Punta Arenas and Ushuaia in the Patagonia

Aerovías DAP (Las Aerolíneas de la Patagonia) (Punta Arenas) on June 14 2012 announced the launch of a new regular route linking the southern Chilean city of Punta Arenas with the southern Argentine city of Ushuaia in the Patagonia (the route has been operated as charter flights in the past). A media flight was performed on June 14, while the official start of scheduled operations will be on July 7. The new route will be operated with two flights a week on Mondays and Saturdays. The aircraft that will be operating this new route is the pictured de Havilland Canada DHC-6-300 Twin Otter registered as CC-CHV (above), the same aircraft that was used on the promotional flight of June 14. The Twin Otter covers both cities in about 1 hour and 25 minutes over some very scenic territory.

In other news, Aerovías DAP BAe 146-200 CC-ACO landed in Santiago for the first time on June 12, on a direct flight from Punta Arenas. The jetliner is reportedly to be part of the charter operations on behalf of the mining industry in the northern part of Chile which are to begin soon. Once started, Aerovias DAP will operate from northern Chile to Antarctica.

Top Copyright Photo: Alvaro Romero. DHC-6-300 Twin Otter CC-CHV (msn 709) is being maintained at the Puntas Arenas base. The Twin Otter still wears the basic colors of Brymon Airways.

Bottom Copyright Photo: Alvaro Romero. The pictured BAe 146-200 CC-CZP operates regular scheduled flights from Punta Arenas to Puerto Williams and charter flights to Antarctica during the summer, hence the titles in Spanish.

Sky Airline is delayed in starting the new Santiago-Buenos Aires route

Sky Airline (Chile) Airbus A320-232 CC-ABV (msn 1400) SCL (Alvaro Romero) (new type), originally uploaded by Airliners Gallery.

Sky Airline (Chile) (Santaigo) has been delayed in starting its new route to Buenos Aires using its newly-acquired Airbus A320s. The company announced the first scheduled flight between Santiago de Chile (SCL) and Buenos Aires (EZE), originally scheduled for September 3, 2010, has been delayed. The airline has been informed by the Argentine aviation authorities that it has not yet received the necessary authorization to start scheduled operations. The airline had already sold tickets for the inaugural flights and had to rebook the passengers on LAN Airlines or Aerolíneas Argentinas flights.

The route is not likely to start now until December 2010.