Summary
- LATAM Airlines Group has restored day by day connectivity between Santiago de Chile and Rapa Nui, using its Boeing 787 fleet.
- The resumption of day by day flights will support Rapa Nui’s tourism industry and economic development, transporting as much as 4,200 passengers per week and promoting sustainable tourism.
- LATAM Airlines has prolonged its agreement with Rapa Nui’s government to move as much as 300 tons of waste annually from the island to the mainland for correct disposal and recycling.
LATAM Airlines Group has restored the day by day connectivity between Santiago de Chile International Airport (SCL) and Rapa Nui Mataveri International Airport (IPC), the distant airport within the Pacific Ocean. The airline is employing its Boeing 787 fleet to hook up with this destination, which was deeply impacted when it comes to connectivity by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nearly 4 years within the making
Resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, Rapa Nui became very isolated from the remaining of Chile. Even before the worldwide crisis, the island was only served by LATAM Airlines, which, resulting from the sanitary restrictions, was forced to temporarily shut the day by day flights from Santiago altogether in 2020.
Photo: Vytautas Kielaitis/Shutterstock.
Now, nearly 4 years later, LATAM has finally resumed day by day services to Rapa Nui. The flight, which is over 3,700 kilometers long, is now available from Monday to Sunday, operated onboard the airline’s Boeing 787, with a capability to hold as much as 300 passengers, LATAM said in a press release.
Moreover, LATAM Airlines signed an extension to an agreement with Rapa Nui’s government to hold without cost from the island to the continent as much as 300 tons of waste per yr for its correct disposal and recycling.
Flight times
LATAM Airlines will operate flight LA841, departing from Santiago de Chile at 9:40. It is going to land in Rapa Nui at 13:10. The return service, LA842, will depart from Rapa Nui at 15:05, landing in Santiago at 21:40. Roberto Alvo, Chief Executive Officer at LATAM Airlines Group, said,
Meanwhile, Pedro Edmunds Paoa, Rapa Nui’s mayor, added,
Disposing of the waste
As said before, LATAM and the island’s government reached an extension of the agreement to move waste from Rapa Nui to Chile’s mainland. This measure goals to strengthen a commitment that LATAM has held with the island for nearly ten years, enabling the airline to move over 1,500 tons of waste freed from charge through the period.
Photo: LATAM.
Not fully left alone through the pandemic
While LATAM needed to temporarily stop scheduled passenger operations through the pandemic until August 2022, the airline group operated charter flights and cargo flights, which helped keep the island’s greater than 8,000 inhabitants supplied and connected, in addition to facilitated the transportation of healthcare personnel and medical supplies, including the free transportation of over 19,000 vaccines.
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