Summary LATAM Colombia cancels 36 flights due to temporary fuel shortage caused by an electrical failure in Colombia. Despite fuel shortage, LATAM maintains international operations by refueling outside of Colombia for certain flights. LATAM Colombia canceled 36 flights for tomorrow over a fuel shortage in the country that was caused by an electrical failure at a refinery.
Temporary fuel shortage An electrical failure at a refinery in Colombia has led LATAM Colombia to cancel many flights tomorrow. The failure led to a shortage of fuel, and at the time of writing, LATAM had canceled 36 flights. This represents 17% of the airline's daily operations.
According to data from Flightaware, all the flights canceled were at El Dorado International Airport in Bogotá. Eighteen departures and 18 arrivals were canceled, representing 3% and 4% of the airport's operations, respectively. avianca has not yet canceled any flights.
A report from Barron's said that avianca anticipated some adjustments in itineraries at some airports due to the shortage. The electrical failure happened at the Cartagena Refinery (Reficar) from August 16-18. To help mitigate the problem, Ecopetrol, which is owned by the state, plans to import 100,000 barrels of aviation fuel.
To keep its operation running, the airline refueled outside of Colombia for some of its international operations. Santiago Álvarez, CEO of LATAM Colombia, said, "It is essential to evaluate structural measures that offer better tools to address contingencies like this, where our passengers would be the most affected." LATAM Colombia's operations According to data from Cirium, an aviation analytics firm, LATAM Colombia has 6,400 roundtrip flights scheduled this month.
The airline's seat offering is just over 1.1 million. Bogotá-Medellin, which is sometimes operated 17 times daily, is the busiest route.
Most of the routes that LATAM Colombia operates are quite short, and none of the top five busiest are longer than 500 miles. At number one is Bogotá-Medellín, which has up to 17 daily roundtrips and is only 133 miles long. The flight from Bogotá to Cali is 174 miles and is flown up to 14 times daily.
Each of these routes has more than 100,000 seats available. Though most of the routes are short, the airline has three longer routes: Miami, Orlando, and São Paulo. The flight to São Paulo is the longest at 2,689 miles and is operated daily.
The flight to Orlando International Airport is the second-longest in the network at 1,698 miles. This route is also operated daily and has a seat offering of just over 10,400 this month. The third and final route over 1,500 miles is to Miami International Airport .
The flight is 1,506 miles and is flown twice daily on the airline's Airbus A320 family aircraft. This month, there are more than 21,000 seats available on the route. Of the 6,400 flights, only 318 are international, with just under 54,000 seats available on operations outside of Colombia.
In addition to serving the three international routes above, LATAM Colombia connects to two more countries. The airline operates four weekly flights to Caracas in Venezuela and Quito in Ecuador. Data from ch-aviation shows that in 2024, LATAM Colombia only operates Airbus A320 family aircraft, totaling 35 planes.
In the past, the airline operated DeHavilland Canada turboprops, Boeing 767-300ERs, and other Boeing and Airbus narrowbodies..
