Latam Cargo Group has completed its first Boeing 777-300ER reconfiguration, temporarily removing the passenger seats from the aircraft’s economy cabin to increase its cargo transportation capacity by 20 per cent.

The procedure, completed at the airline’s Sao Paulo Maintenance Center, was undertaken by employees from the company’s maintenance, engineering, flight operations, cabin maintenance, DCO and cargo operations teams, among others.

This transformation is part of the company’s current strategy, which aims to mitigate the effects of belly capacity restrictions: to maximize its assets’ capacity and optimize its resources by utilising passenger aircraft exclusively for cargo transportation.

This way, Latam Cargo Group will be able to increase its cargo capacity and satisfy Latin America’s current transportation needs.

The airline decided to modify this particular aircraft to achieve its new challenge of temporarily flying to Asia in order to collect medical supplies for Latin America.

Latam Cargo Group’s CEO, Andrés Bianchi, said: “The changes we have implemented aim to quickly mitigate the impact of the reductions in belly capacity, thereby offering our clients additional alternatives.

“Utilising passenger aircraft exclusively for cargo transportation allows us to move towards this goal and also to continue supporting our clients at a critical time for their businesses.”

Bianchi added: “I am deeply grateful for the teams’ commitment, diligence and effort to this time-critical project. Thanks to them, we are able to support the supply chain and meet both countries’ and our clients’ needs in due time and form.”

Visit latamcargo.com for more information.