‍DALLAS — The largest airline holding in South America, LATAM Airlines Group (LA), announced a new order for up to 15 Boeing 787 Dreamliners. The agreement includes 10 firm orders and five options for the mid-length 787-9 variant.

With this new order, LA's 787 fleet will grow to 52 units by 2030. Ramiro Alfonsín, LATAM's CFO, said, “This order will enable us to receive at least two aircraft of this model each year from 2025 until the end of the decade.”

The delivery frequency of two aircraft per year is optimistic and remarkable, to say the least, considering the enormous Boeing order backlog and the current worldwide shortage of raw materials.

Coinciding with a Long-Awaited Comeback

Apart from the announcement of the new order by LATAM, the carrier presented a long-awaited comeback of one of its most iconic routes, from Santiago de Chile (SCL) to Sydney (SYD). This nonstop 14:25h connection has been available for customers since 2019 but only lasted one year before the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Chilean AOC of LA inaugurated this service on October 27 and will resume it four times weekly. 

At the time of writing, LATAM Group operates a mixed fleet of 10 Boeing 787-8s and 27 787-9s across its seven subsidiaries.