Within hours of receiving the request for support, the LATAM Airlines group activated its Avión Solidario (Solidarity Plane) program. The emergency affects more than 2,000 families on Santa Cruz in the Galápagos islands, where heavy rains linked to El Niño caused flooding. LATAM Ecuador, supported by LATAM Cargo Group and working with the Chamber of Industries and Production (CIP) and Grupo Entregas, flew 1,000 food and hygiene products kits and 9,600 liters of water from Quito.
The main challenge was the destination. Baltra Airport cannot handle a Boeing 767 freighter, the aircraft LATAM Cargo Group usually uses for missions like this. The cargo teams did not want to reduce the amount of aid, so they quickly activated a procedure the company has already tested: carrying cargo in the hold and also on the cabin seats of a passenger aircraft.
On a regular passenger flight, an A319 can carry about 3,500 kilos of cargo. With no passengers and only the hold in use, it can carry about 6,800 kilos. With this procedure, the team loaded 6,700 kilos into the hold and another 6,100 kilos directly on the cabin seats, all properly secured. In total, the flight carried 12,800 kilos of humanitarian aid. That is more than three times the cargo of a regular flight on this aircraft and almost twice what it could carry in the hold alone.
"In an emergency, the main goal is to get aid there as quickly as possible. Because of the restrictions in the Galápagos, meeting that goal meant a Plan B: flying an A319 as a 'preighter.' Being able to carry this out so quickly highlights the creativity, expertise and passion of the LATAM group's teams. Thanks to them, and together with partners such as CIP and Grupo Entregas, we were able to carry more than triple the aid this aircraft normally transports," said Andrés Bianchi, CEO of LATAM Cargo Group.
With this activation, LATAM reaffirms its commitment to the Avión Solidario program, which puts the group's connectivity and cargo capacity at the service of social and humanitarian causes across the region.
