LATAM Airlines led market share among carriers flying between Brazil and the U.S. in the third quarter of 2023, after resuming nonstop flights to Los Angeles, data from the local National Civil Aviation Agency ANAC showed Friday.
The company, which surpassed American Airlines and United Airlines, transported more than 260,000 passengers between the two countries in that period.
The average load factor on these flights reached 89%.
LATAM had last led the ranking for three months in a row between November 2019 and January 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted air travel around the world, ANAC figures show.
Brazil has the U.S. as its No. 1 market for international flights in number of passengers transported, with an 18% share so far this year, above Argentina (15%) and Portugal (12%).
“The leadership reflects the sustainable recovery of our international operations and the first year of our joint venture with Delta,” LATAM Brasil sales director Aline Mafra said in a statement to Reuters.
The results, according to ANAC, secured LATAM a 26% market share for flights between the two most populous countries in the Americas in the August-October period, above American Airlines’ 22% and United Airlines’ 20%.
Year to date, American Airlines still leads the ranking with a 23.7% market share, slightly above LATAM’s 22.4%, considering the number of passengers transported.
LATAM resumed flights between Sao Paulo and Los Angeles in August, making it the sole non-stop flight between Brazil’s largest city and the U.S. West Coast, and hopes to transport more than 110,000 people per year in the route.
It had also launched Sao Paulo-Boston flights last year, saying 74,000 people have flown between the two cities so far, with an average load factor of 80%. The carrier also operates flights to Miami, Orlando and New York.
Plataforma Informativa de Aviación Comercial líder en América Latina.