From March 17, 2018, Latam Airlines services will take off from Rome Fiumicino to Sao Paulo.
According to Joao Murias, Latam Airlines commercial director for Southern Europe and the Middle East: “This new operation is the completion of a strategy on Europe: Rome becomes our seventh destination to the old continent and it is an important stopover, as it represents one of the most visited destinations in the world. Compared to the flight over Milan, which we have been operating successfully for 11 years, with a mainly business traffic and a load factor close to 87%, the connection to and from Fiumicino will ensure a mix of targets ranging from leisure to religious tourism. Due to the attractiveness of Rome, we expect a greater coverage of Brazilian, Argentinian, Chilean and Peruvian passengers.”
From March to July, Latam Airlines will operate three flights a week which will become five during the summer season, thus ensuring 12 weekly direct frequencies on the Italy-Brazil route.
With regards to relations with travel agencies, Murias confirmed the carrier’s interest in strengthening its partnership with intermediation: “In addition to confirming the minimum commission regime (the standard of the other airlines at 0.1%), we are counting on ensuring incentives to the top partners and to the most productive agencies. Our promoters on the Italian territory operate precisely in this sense, also to promote stops in Sao Paulo, a metropolis not only industrial but full of nightlife and among the best shopping capitals in Brazil. Another important action addressed to the travel agents retailers concerns the telephone assistance that we assure every day, operated by Italian staff.”
Federico Scriboni, head of traffic development at Aeroporti di Roma, focused on the importance of this new flight: “With the arrival of such an important carrier as Latam, we will consolidate the performances on the Latin American area that already registered last year over 1 million passengers on Fiumicino, confirming their operational relevance. With this new entry, we therefore secured further growth on the long-haul, which in 2017 already saw an increase in passengers of + 3%. We are confident that this route will create new traffic and will also generate benefits in the so-called additional traffic if we consider that almost 50% of the passengers of the Italy-Brazil sector request at least an intermediate stop.”
And on the strategic role of this new link, Leonardo Costanzo, head of the Department for Economic Development, Tourism and Labor of Rome Capital said: “This is another step towards the redevelopment of incoming which aims to increase the flow of quality tourism, consolidating the trend of high-end guests that last year were distinguished by an extension of their stay in the capital, in four and five stars hotels
