To strengthen local pride within the LATAM Airlines Group, the conglomerate has announced that it will paint five Airbus A320 aircraft with custom country colored tails.
The LATAM Airlines Group consists of acquired and merged airlines from six countries including Chile, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru. The first to feature the new scheme is PR-XBG, an Airbus A320neo flying for LATAM Brazil. The aircraft was painted and flown back to Sao Paulo on January 2, and re-entered service on January 11.
The group has chosen to paint five representing all the countries with the exception of Paraguay.
It’s not clear exactly why LATAM Paraguay was left out, but one guess would be due to how the airline was initially formed. In 1994, the then Brazilian TAM Linhas Aéreas founded a subsidiary airline in Paraguay called Aerolíneas Paraguayas. In 1996, TAM (through its subsidiary) would then go on to acquire 80% of Paraguay’s Lineas Aereas Paraguayas to form TAM – Transportes Aereos del Mercosur. Whether that be the reason or not, it would have still been nice to have something representing Paraguay.
The special liveries feature colors from their respective flags, as well as their country flag being painted just behind the cockpit window. Brazil’s rendition stands out the most with its yellow and green scheme (somewhat reminds me of Venezuela’s LASER Airlines). The Chile repaint reverses the colors with red being more dominant.
Colombia and Ecuador both have combinations of blue, yellow and red, with Colombia’s tail being more biased to yellow. Finally there is Peru which has a red and white ribbon. Paraguay could have easily been represented with a 6th aircraft, possibly with an all-blue and white ribbon similar to how Peru did it with its red.
With Brazil’s variant already delivered, the remaining aircraft will be introduced to their respective flights through out the balance of 2024.
[Featured Photo: LATAM Group]
