LAN in no hurry on Asia links

Latin America's largest cargo operator is boosting its freighter fleet, but expansion across the Pacific is not on the cards for the time being, despite growing demand for a main-deck connection between Asia and Latin America.

LAN Cargo has ordered a fourth Boeing 777 freighter and is leasing three B767-300 cargo aircraft in response to buoyant demand. The smaller all-cargo planes are entering service over the coming months, while the 105-tonne 777 is scheduled for delivery in the fourth quarter of 2012, the same period when another 777F is due to join LAN's fleet.

However, the carrier has no immediate plans to mount a much-coveted transpacific freighter operation. For now management prefers to concentrate on intra-regional growth and its transatlantic link.

Having deployed its first two B777 freighters across the Atlantic last year, LAN had signalled that it intended to use the next 777F to mount flights to Asia. Driven by rapidly expanding trade between the regions, notably between China and Brazil, shippers and forwarders have been clamouring for such a link. That desire has increased in the wake of Japan Airlines' termination of its passenger flights between its home market and Brazil.

"We want to connect Brazil with the world," said Cristian Ureta, chief executive officer of LAN Cargo. "We see demand to connect Brazil with Asia."

However, the long sector makes it challenging for carriers to make such an operation profitable. For the most part, Asian operators prefer to funnel air freight headed for Brazil to Miami, where it connects to freighter departures to the southern hemisphere. LAN Cargo has interline agreements with several Asian carriers to move cargo over Miami and also uses Los Angeles, to a lesser extent, for that purpose.

"For direct flights you need a very efficient plan. We are evaluating that now," Ureta remarked.

For now, LAN Cargo has its hands full keeping up with rising intra-Latin American growth. Over the coming two years its parent airline is going to inaugurate new routes and boost frequencies on existing sectors in the region, but this will be done mostly with narrow-body aircraft. Hence, the cargo carrier needs additional main-deck capacity - the three 767-300Fs now leased - to meet cargo demand there. In addition, these regional freighter routes will strengthen LAN's ability to feed traffic to and from a growing number of points in Latin America into its long-haul network to Miami and beyond, Ureta said.

"We interline in the US, over Los Angeles and Miami, to connect Asian traffic to different points in Brazil, not only to Sao Paulo," he said. "That's the best way for us for now."
(source:www.cargonewsasia.com)