The Falkland Islands Government continues to closely monitor the situation regarding the suspension of commercial air links with Chile and Brazil, in light of the ongoing pandemic.
A U.S. bankruptcy judge rejected a US$ 2.4 billion financing plan for struggling LATAM Airlines on the grounds that a convertible loan included as part of the package would amount to “improper” treatment of other shareholders.
LATAM Airlines have confirmed to the Falkland Islands government that the Punta Arenas-Santiago route will remain suspended until at least 2 January 2021, and the situation will be reviewed near that date.
LATAM Airlines, South America's largest carrier, on Tuesday said it had laid off 12,600 employees since March - or almost 30% of its pre-coronavirus workforce - due to the pandemic that has upended the global travel industry. The company also reported a net loss of US$ 890 million for the second quarter.
The Falkland Islands government, FIG, which continues to review connetivity, was informed by LATAM that the weekly air link with Chile, via the Punta Arenas-Santiago route will remain suspended until at least 7 November 2020, and the situation will be reviewed near that date.
Latin America's biggest airline, the Brazilian-Chilean group LATAM, said it was laying off at least 2,700 crew to cope with the devastating effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the aviation industry.
Peru reopened domestic air travel on Wednesday in a bid to reignite the economy as it announced a drop of 33% in GDP for May year-on-year. Long queues of passengers formed from dawn at the Jorge Chavez airport in the capital Lima with 17 domestic flights operating during the day.
Latam Airlines Brazil has joined other parts of the airline group in entering Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as it took a further step to securing required financing to complete its restructuring.
South American carrier LATAM has suspended ticket sales on 23 routes across its network, including several domestic routes within Chile and international routes from Brazil, Chile and Peru. At the same time, the Santiago-headquartered carrier has made the bold move to suspend international destinations from five Argentinean destinations to the carrier’s hubs in Santiago, Lima and Sao Paulo until 2021.
The Falkland Islands currently have an only air link which is the air bridge with the United Kingdom twice a week, since the commercial flights from Chile and Brazil managed by Latam, have been suspended at least until the end of July.