Latam Brasil will retire its remaining four Airbus A350-900s next week under plans to shed the model following its permanent grounding of seven of the widebodies on Thursday, airline president Jerome Cadier informed employees in a letter dated April 8. The move will leave the company with older Boeing 787s to serve its long-haul routes. The airline filed for Chapter 11 protection in the U.S. in May of last year amid the initial wave of Covid-19 infections. That same month a deal in which Delta Air Lines would acquire four of Latam’s A350s and assume ten future deliveries fell apart.
Cadier promised in the note that the move would result in no immediate layoffs of flight crew.
Latam said it would suspend most flights to Chile starting April 5 in response to the Chilean government suspension of commercial flights from Brazil and Argentina. Brazil’s Covid pandemic continues unabated, with daily record deaths.