LATAM Airlines Brazil has unveiled seven new routes for 2026, including three long-haul additions from Sao Paulo.
The carrier plans to add intercontinental services from Sao Paulo Guarulhos International Airport (GRU) to Amsterdam, Brussels and Cape Town, alongside four new domestic destinations to Caldas Novas, Campina Grande, Juiz de Fora and Uberaba.
Flights to Amsterdam will commence in April, followed by Brussels in June and Cape Town in September. All three new routes will operate three times per week.
“Since 2021, LATAM Airlines has been the airline that invests the most in Brazil,” LATAM Brazil CEO Jerome Cadier says. “This is only possible because we focus on efficiency and frequent customers. This is what allows us to continue investing very carefully in sustainable markets. In a market like Brazil, only those who have this discipline can invest sustainably.”
The GRU-Brussels market is currently unserved but generated 35,500 two-way O&D passengers in 2024, making it Sao Paulo’s fourth-largest unserved European market after Geneva, Berlin and Dublin, according to Sabre Market Intelligence data. GRU-Amsterdam ranked ninth with 96,800 passengers, and KLM already operates 9X-weekly flights on the route—daily 777-300ER services plus 2X-weekly 787-9 rotations.
On the South Africa sector, South African Airways serves Cape Town-Sao Paulo twice a week with Airbus A330-300s, having launched the route in November 2023. LATAM’s new GRU-Cape Town service will add further competition and marks the carrier’s second African route after Johannesburg.
With these additions, GRU will be connected to 14 European cities and five in Africa. LATAM already operates to eight European destinations from Sao Paulo—Barcelona, Frankfurt, Lisbon, London Heathrow, Madrid, Milan Malpensa, Paris Charles de Gaulle and Rome Fiumicino—as well as Johannesburg in South Africa.
In Brazil’s domestic market, LATAM remains the largest carrier, holding a 38.3% capacity share in November 2025, ahead of GOL (32.9%) and Azul (28.8%), OAG Schedules Analyser data shows. At GRU, LATAM accounts for 59.7% of all departure seats.
The network additions come as Brazil’s civil aviation authority ANAC moves to deepen international market access. During ICAO’s ICAN 2025 negotiations in Punta Cana, ANAC concluded new agreements or Records of Discussion with 10 countries—including Belgium, Iceland, Uruguay and Trinidad and Tobago—while also holding technical talks with the U.S., Canada, Poland, Haiti and Mali to advance future bilateral updates.
Notably, Brazil and Belgium signed a new memorandum of understanding that updates operational provisions and relaxes traffic rights in the existing bilateral agreement—a move that aligns with LATAM’s decision to launch the new Sao Paulo-Brussels service.
Related Content
