LATAM Airlines Group’s European debut from Colombia is among the more eye-catching new routes starting in July 2024.
The airline’s inaugural flight linking Bogota’s El Dorado International Airport (BOG) and Madrid-Barajas Airport (MAD) is scheduled to commence on July 3, operating daily using Boeing 787-8 aircraft.
The development follows LATAM’s request to Colombia’s civil aviation authority Aerocivil in October 2023 for permission to operate fifth-freedom flights connecting Bogota and Madrid as part of a route that originates and ends at Santiago’s Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL) in Chile.
LATAM currently offers four nonstop routes to Spain, linking Lima, Peru; Santiago; and São Paulo Guarulhos, Brazil, with Madrid. Additionally, the airline flies to Barcelona from São Paulo. Once flights between Bogota and Madrid begin, the carrier will become the fifth to connect the capital cities, alongside Air Europa, Avianca, Iberia and Plus Ultra Lineas Aereas.
Qantas Airways is also expanding its European network in July, opening a new route to France’s capital Paris ahead of the Olympic Games. Flights will connect Perth Airport (PER) and Paris Charles de Gaulle four times per week from July 12 using 787-9s.
The introduction of the new service will add an additional 75,000 seats to and from Europe every year and cut around 3 hr. off the current fastest travel time between the two cities. It comes a month after the airline and PER reached a multi-billion-dollar agreement for a new terminal and runway, positioning the Western Australia airport to become the airline’s second-largest international gateway, after Sydney.
European service is also being added by Air China, which plans to launch flights between Chengdu Tianfu International Airport in southwest China and Milan Malpensa Airport, marking its fourth route to the city and its sixth to Italy. The new service will operate three times per week using Airbus A350-900 aircraft, with the inaugural flight scheduled for July 29.
The addition of the 5,008-mi. (4,352-nm) sector will see Air China double its Milan network compared with pre-pandemic levels. In 2019, the Star Alliance member offered two routes to the city, flying from Beijing Capital and Shanghai Pudong.
After pausing operations in February 2020, flights from Beijing resumed in October 2021 followed by the launch of a new route from Wenzhou in November 2022. Shanghai was then reinstated in March 2023.
Elsewhere, July will see China Airlines begin offering nonstop flights to Seattle from July 14. The service from Taipei Taiwan Taoyuan will be provided five times per week using A350-900 equipment. Seattle will become the airline’s sixth destination in North America after Los Angeles, New York John F. Kennedy, Ontario, San Francisco and Vancouver.
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