SANTIAGO (Reuters) – LATAM Airlines posted a second-quarter net profit of $145.25 million on Wednesday, reversing the year-ago loss of $523.2 million following its exit from bankruptcy in November.
The Santiago-based airline saw second-quarter revenues rise 21% to $2.63 billion, with revenues from its commercial business growing and those from its cargo unit shrinking.
The appreciation of the Brazilian real gave the company an additional $26 million boost in revenues, it said in a filing to Chile’s stock market.
The company’s operating result stood at $228.5 million in the quarter, “driven by good performance in the passenger business,” with operating costs coming in at $2.45 billion.
The airline, South America’s largest, was hit hard by the pause in travel demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, leading it to declare bankruptcy later that year.
It came out of bankruptcy protection last November with an $8 billion reorganization plan.
LATAM Airlines, created out of the 2012 merger of Chilean airline LAN with Brazilian carrier TAM, operates units across the Latin American region.
(This story has been corrected to fix the Brazil real appreciation revenue boost to $26 million and not $26 billion in paragraph 3, and fixes typo to ‘carrier’ in paragraph 7)
(Reporting by Carolina Pulice and Fabian Cambero; Writing by Isabel Woodford; Editing by Valentine Hilaire)
