WEEKLY NEWS


CARGO-ONLY AIRLINES ON THE RISE IN LATIN AMERICA


AIR CARG O WEEK


06


BY Oscar SARDINAS


FOR decades, Latin American air cargo mainly moved on the underside of passenger planes. Perishables out, electronics in. Rinse and repeat. The model worked well enough when demand was predictable. That’s no longer the case. A combination of nearshoring, rising intra-regional e-commerce, and shifting trade lanes is driving a new generation of dedicated freighters across the region. And the carriers making those bets are telling three different stories. The backdrop is telling. Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico together account for around 60 percent of Latin America’s


airfreight traffic, with more than 60 percent of that volume being outbound, according to ALTA regional data. The region remains heavily export-oriented: perishables, flowers, salmon, fruit, but inbound e-commerce and pharmaceutical volumes are growing fast. That shift is making the freighter case hard to ignore.


LATAM Cargo scaling fast Few carriers in the region have moved more aggressively than LATAM Cargo. At the 2026 IATA World Cargo Symposium in Lima, they revealed that their cargo affiliates transported more than one million tonnes in 2025 and generated revenues of US$1.7 billion, representing 30 percent of the regional market. Freight now accounts for 11.4 percent of the LATAM Group’s total revenue. The Europe–South America corridor clearly tells a tale of expansion. LATAM Cargo grew to 15 weekly frequencies


on that lane in 2025, a 25 percent increase, adding a direct Brazil–Europe service via São Paulo and Recife to Brussels for the first time. Pharmaceuticals were the standout growth category, volumes up 43 percent year- on-year, with a CEIV Pharma-certified network now spanning 221 active routes. Chief Executive Andrés Bianchi, speaking at WCS, framed the growth in terms of Peru’s export boom, noting that reliable air connectivity helps time-sensitive industries compete in distant, high-value markets.


Atlas Air: New horizons While LATAM Cargo deepens its network, Atlas Air is opening new routes. At the Caspian Air Cargo Summit in Baku in September 2025, Martin Drew, Atlas Air’s Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer, announced the carrier would operate a B747-400 freighter between China and Lima, Peru, for the first time ever, offering three weekly frequencies. A significant development. Lima has long received China-origin cargo via connecting services through Santiago or São Paulo. A direct service signals genuine confidence in point-to-point demand, driven by Peru’s surging fresh-produce export economy and a growing appetite for electronics and consumer goods on the


ACW 13APRIL 2026 import side.


Copa: A calculated pause Some Latin American freighter stories are still waiting for takeoff. Copa Airlines became the first operator of the 737-800BCF in the region in 2022 and took delivery of a second aircraft in August 2025. Then it stopped. “We have two 737-800BCFs and we are not going to change the type of aircraft. Widebody freighters are not an option for us,” Senior Director of Cargo Jaime Alvarez said at Cargo Facts LATAM 2026 in February. Copa’s Panama City hub is one of the region’s most strategically positioned gateways, but in a market where aircraft feedstock constraints and conversion costs are real structural challenges, patience is a rational strategy.


GOL: One to watch The most underreported freighter story in Latin America may be happening entirely outside the international cargo press. Brazil’s GOL, best known as a domestic low-cost passenger carrier, is now the largest 737-800BCF operator in Latin America, flying eight converted freighters on behalf of Mercado Libre under a ten-year partnership. In October 2025, the carrier also took delivery of its first 737-800BCF for its own logistics division, revealing ambitions beyond the Mercado Libre contract. A domestic airline running a dedicated e-commerce freighter network for Latin America’s largest marketplace is a mirror image of what Amazon Air did in North America.


What does it all mean? The Iran conflict has reshuffled global airfreight, to say the least. With Gulf hub connectivity disrupted, direct Asia–Latin America routes have taken on new strategic weight, and carriers with independent routing capacity are better placed to keep things moving when the world’s busiest corridors go dark. Other problems persist. Customs inefficiencies, inland transport costs, and digitisation gaps have historically


been the region’s ceiling. As Robert Barcelo of Port Everglades put it at Transport Logistic Americas in Miami, nine times out of ten, the cost of processes exceeds the cost of the freight itself. Until that changes, the freighter build-out will likely outpace the infrastructure supporting it. The direction is clear. Belly cargo moved Latin American airfreight for a generation. The carriers putting money into dedicated lift today are betting that the next one will look different.


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