LATAM sees potential in Australian-South American market
By David Flynn, December 8 2016
Next year's start of direct flights between Melbourne and Santiago is another measured step by LATAM to tap into the "trade and tourism" flow between Australian andSouth American.
Melbourne is only LATAM's second Australian destination, "but there's a lot of potential in Australia as point of origin and also a destination (for South Americans)," says Patricio Aylwin, managing director of Asia Pacific for LATAM.
"Australia is has enough big cities like Melbourne which have probably been under-served so they can give us capacity, whether through direct or indirect flights," Aylwin tells Australian Business Traveller.
While the Sydney-Santiago route involves a stop-over at Auckland, its southern sibling will run as a direct service: a decision which Aylwin says "just made more sense from all perspectives."
"We wanted to provide direct access to Melbourne and we didn’t want to extend even more capacity to Auckland."
Aylwin admits that there is "always" the possibility for Sydney-Santiago to shift to a non-stop service, despite the accidental side-effect it's had in become one of the better-value options for trans-Tasman business travellers.
Read: The best business class seats flying between Sydney and Auckland
However, both Sydney and Melbourne are likely to retain LATAM's Boeing 787-9 jets rather than shift to the new Airbus A350s which are "mainly flying from Brazil to the US and Europe," Aylwin says.
"The A350's performance has been very good, it's everything we expected from that aircraft, but I think the Boeing 787 is probably a better fit for Sydney and Melbourne."
To Santiago and beyond...
And despite the 7pm arrival of the 13-hour flight from Melbourne into Santiago, Aylwin expects many passengers will still hop straight onto connecting flights from Santiago to other South American cities on LATAM's extensive network – although "we are fine-tuning our schedule so people can connect even better than they could today."
"There are connections to all the major cities" from Santiago through the late evening "and we are considering connecting traffic for sure. This is not just a point-to-point flight, we know connectivity into the rest of South America is extremely important."
"Yes, there will be late arrival into cities such as Argentina, Peru and Brazil, but we think most passengers will want to continue on and arrive at their final destination as quickly as possible."
David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
17 May 2015
Total posts 75
I agree that there is a lot of untapped potential for tourism between the two continents. However, governments need to do their part to encourage tourism by removing red-tap and fees. Currently Australians pay $117US on arrival to enter Santiago (valid for 90 days). Australians pay $100US to enter Argentina (paid online and valid for a year). For Brazil, Australians need to organise a Visa prior to arrival. As a Melbournian, this means sending a passport to Canberra (a process that takes about 2-3 weeks and costs about $250). The process is excruciating, inconvenient, and a complete disincentive to visit Brazil. This visa is valid for 90 days (incidentally, Brazilian can organise a tourist visa for Australia online which is not only valid for a year, but half the price).
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
31 Aug 2015
Total posts 121
The fees are reciprocal. Unless the AU govt. waives the visa requirement for those countries, they won't be going away. Plus, believe as an immigrant on a work visa in this country, those fees are a fraction of what some people need to pay and do to enter Australia.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
17 May 2015
Total posts 75
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
01 Mar 2012
Total posts 177
Having lived in São Paulo, while I wouldn't care about arriving late, I could see how most people wouldn't like the idea. That being said most business travellers will just go and deal with it. Most leisure travellers will travel to Rio first which in past experience is better set up for tourists, however it is four years since I last went there.
10 Aug 2015
Total posts 113
Late arrival (or early departure) in many parts of South America is a very good thing as it allows one to avoid the worst of the traffic. The GRU-SCL-SYD connection with Qantas is very well timed to allows passengers to be on the road to the airport before Sao Paulo wakes up.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
07 Jul 2015
Total posts 41
Looking at the One World site and with the direct MEL flight arriving in SCL at 7pm, am I right in saying you only have one option to go on to GRU at 2030? If this flight was delayed, you'd hate to miss that and overnight in SCL.
Qantas
02 May 2016
Total posts 62
I applied for a Brazil visa recently and while the process is slow, it is a 5 year visa, agree all the reciprocity fees need to be looked at to truly drive tourism in South America for Australians.....I visited SCL 4 times in the past 18 months on business and had to pay the US$117 I think 3 times, as the 90 day period had expired,so it adds up even for business travelers
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
29 Nov 2013
Total posts 9
Congratulations Latam on expanding services to Oceania! We have come a very long way from the original SCL-IPC-PPT flights four decades ago! and AR's pioneering EZE-RGL-AKL flights of the early eighties!! Wonder why Latam is not taking advantage of it's "dual nationality" and offer through service MEL-SCL-GRU..?
09 Dec 2016
Total posts 1
I personally think this is a very bold move by LATAM to consolidate its position through this ocean bridge that is the South Pacific link between Oceania and South America. TBH the reciprocity fees wont matter in the long term because what LATAM has done is expand the market which may make this connection even more competitive which may result in attractive prices as demand increases. What will truly benefit this expansion to Australia is that Santiago Airport has now begun to expand and upgrade itself under the management of Vinci Airports from France, who built and manages Charles De Gaulle in Paris. Particular for business travellers, Santiago will become a fantastic gateway for those choosing to land at a first class brand new and updated airport flying on very young Boeing 789's, and i can imagine them exploring even newer aircraft in future... they can potentially add the A350's to the mix. Qantas needs to get its Dreamliner in time for Santiago's Airport update...
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
12 Dec 2016
Total posts 2
With this flight from MEL, it will mean emigrating at PER both directions. Coming back, bags will have to be rechecked to the domestic flight same as you would with Sydney international connections. This is a hassle, as you are red eyed already, and have to go through customs, wait for your bags, put them on a trolley, walk to domestic.... Great.
One more thing. To make the mid morning flight to LHR from PER, means the MEL departure time at a guess will be between 6 and 7 am.
The bar is not even open, just wonderful!
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