MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Qatar Airways and LATAM expand South America networks

The expanded agreement will allow Qatar Airways passengers to book travel on 45 additional LATAM Airlines Brasil flights and to access over 40 domestic and international destinations

Qatar Airways is pleased to announce it has increased São Paulo services to 10 weekly flights and expanded codeshare cooperation with LATAM Airlines Brasil optimizing connectivity for both airline’s passengers to and from destinations in Asia, the Middle East and South America. The new codeshare agreement will further strengthen the two airlines’ strategic partnership, first initiated in 2016 and recently expanded in June 2019.

The expanded agreement will allow Qatar Airways passengers to book travel on 45 additional LATAM Airlines Brasil flights and to access over 40 domestic and international destinations on the South American carrier’s network, including Brasilia, Curitiba, Porto Velho, Rio Branco, Rio de Janeiro, San Jose, Lima (Peru), Montevido (Uruguay) and Santiago (Chile).

LATAM Airlines Brasil passengers will also benefit from access to the recently expanded 10 weekly flights to and from Sao Paulo, operated by Qatar Airways’ state-of-the-art Airbus A350-1000 that features the World’s Best Business Class Seat, Qsuite. LATAM Airlines Brasil passengers will also be able to book travel to eight additional Qatar Airways’ destinations such as Bangkok*, Hong Kong*, Maldives, Nairobi, Seoul* and Tokyo* along with additional Qatar Airways’ connecting flights to destinations such as Baku, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.

With an existing loyalty cooperation, frequent fliers with both airlines are also able to earn and redeem miles for travel across the partners’ complete network as well as recognition of their tier status at select airports with benefits such as priority check-in and priority boarding.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker, said: “South America is a strategically important market for Qatar Airways. We are proud to demonstrate our strong commitment to passengers travelling to and from South America by providing even more flexible travel options. By increasing São Paulo services to 10 weekly flights and expanding our codeshare agreement with LATAM Airlines Brasil, we will further cement our position as the airline of choice for customers travelling between Asia, the Middle East and South America.

“Since 2016, both Qatar Airways and LATAM Airlines Brasil have witnessed the significant mutual benefits commercial cooperation have brought, providing our passengers with unrivalled service and seamless connectivity and it is why our codeshare cooperation has been expanded twice in recent years. We look forward to further strengthening our commercial cooperation with LATAM Airlines Brasil to enhance the travel experience for our millions of customers.”

LATAM Brasil CEO, Mr. Jerome Cadier, said: “We are expanding connectivity and the choice of destinations for our customers. Even in a year as difficult as 2020, we are committed to offering our passengers more options to travel further with greater convenience and simplicity.”

Qatar Airways strategic investment in a variety of fuel-efficient twin-engine aircraft, including the largest fleet of Airbus A350 aircraft, has enabled it to continue flying throughout this crisis and perfectly positions it to lead the sustainable recovery of international travel. The airline’s recently delivery of new state-of-the-art Airbus A350-1000 aircraft has increased its total A350 fleet to 53 with an average age of just 2.7 years.

Due to COVID-19’s impact on travel demand, the airline has grounded its fleet of Airbus A380 as it is not environmentally justifiable to operate such a large, four-engine aircraft in the current market. Qatar Airways has also recently launched a new program that enables passengers to voluntarily offset the carbon emissions associated with their journey at the point of booking. (eTN)