LATAM to reduce freighter fleet.

Cargo traffic continues to fall at Chile-headquartered LATAM Airlines Group, which reported February traffic down 8.8% y-o-y to 260 million RTKs. LATAM’s January traffic, while slightly negative compared to the previous year, was at least less bad than what LATAM reported for most of 2016, but February’s decline is right in line with the full-year 2016 decline of 8.7%. For the first two months of 2017, LATAM’s cargo traffic was down 5.6% to 541 million RTKs.

Along with the falling cargo traffic, LATAM is also seeing cargo revenue decline, and in its recently-released 2016 annual report the company said it would continue working to adjust freighter capacity, while remaining focused on maximizing the belly utilization of the passenger fleet. Specifically, LATAM said that, while it intended to continue to operate its eight 767-300Fs, it would drop from the current three 777Fs (one of which is already parked) to just one by the end of this year.