Page 24 - STAT June 2023 Latest Issue

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customers demand transparency, speed
and they want to see all key milestones,”
she said.
Even though downturn trends are too
dramatic because it happens too quickly,
Gabriel Oliva, chief executive officer, Avi-
anca Cargo, who recently spoke in Cargo
Masterminds opined that everybody knew
this was going to come.
The Colombia-based South American
airline has eleven freighters beyond the
belly capacity of its widebody aircraft
operating in South and North America as
well as Europe from its hub in Bogotá. It
became the first airline in the Americas to
gain three IATA CEIV certifications (Fresh,
Pharma, Lithium).
“Next year we will be bringing on
board four A330 freighters because the
customers are demanding more capac-
ity. Last year we increased 30 percent of
our capacity between North America and
South America.”
Perishables account for 50 percent of
Avianca Cargo’s total cargo movements
and it is still a big priority for Oliva in terms
of growth.
As he puts it “Most of the products com-
ing out of Latin America are perishables.
The flowers from the northern part, fish
from the south and fruits and vegeta-
bles from other countries. That’s why we
became the first in the Americas to gain
IATA CEIV Fresh certification. But right now
we are not as strong in salmon coming out
of Chile. We have five freighter frequencies
coming out of Chile. Hopefully, we want to
make it daily by the end of this year.”
Another airline that made changes in its We will end this
fleet is LATAM Airlines. It is in the process
of its fleet modernisation, received its 17th year with seven
B767 freighter in March and plans to have B767 freighters
20 B767 freighters by 2024.
“We used to have a freighter fleet of and next year
about 12 B767s and four B777s. We went
through a valley when we decided that we with nine. This will
have to restructure the fleet, let go of all the help us to change
B777s because they were too big for the
South American market and move back to our offerings with
an all-B767 fleet,” said, Andres Bianchi, chief
executive officer, LATAM Cargo in a recent North America,
interview with The STAT Trade Times. Europe and Latin
“Your fleet needs to follow your strat-
egy. And when you let your fleet drive America.
your strategy, you are prone to make
mistakes. So we went back to the aircraft Janet Wallace
that is best for the region and started Air Canada
22 | JUNE 2023 www.stattimes.com