Bye TAM! LATAM Completes the Painting of The New Brand on all 109 Aircraft in the Brazilian Fleet

Bye TAM! LATAM Completes the Painting of the New Brand on all 109 Aircraft in the Brazilian Fleet

LATAM completed the rebranding project of its entire Brazilian fleet – comprising 109 aircraft of the Airbus A319, A320 and A321 models – with the brand and identity defined by the group after the merger between LAN and TAM in 2012.

In the image, the Airbus A319 with the old TAM paint job (in red) during the taxi and the brand new Airbus A320neo repainted with the new LATAM brand landing on the main runway 17R at Congonhas Airport, São Paulo.

Fleet rebranding was performed at LATAM MRO (acronym for Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul), the LATAM Group's maintenance unit located in São Carlos, in the interior of São Paulo. In all, 48 professionals worked efficiently for more than 1,500 hours each at the LATAM MRO, already recognized for the excellence of the services provided in the consolidation of other important projects such as the reconfiguration and modernization of the interiors of LATAM aircraft cabins, the called retrofit.

 

“The painting of the planes was another one of LATAM's projects that we had to rethink and seek to get the best possible use out of the pandemic scenario. Like many that were underway, we had to interrupt and then resume when we saw that things were improving and there was a unique opportunity to have several planes out of operation. Now, being able to see this very significant project concluded, especially in the context of recovery, is undoubtedly a great achievement for us!” said Alexandre Peronti, Maintenance Director at LATAM Brazil.

 

The LATAM rebranding project also involves another 9 aircraft operating in Chile, Colombia and Peru. The painting of the aircraft of these affiliates will also be carried out by professionals from LATAM MRO, in São Carlos. The forecast is to update the fleet of these countries by the end of January 2022.

 

Efficiency to Complete Aircraft Painting

 

It was in 2016 that the company started the LATAM brand painting project on all its aircraft. In order to optimize costs and maintain quality, LATAM opted for partial painting of the aircraft in October 2020. For this, a technique that consists of applying the new image and the main colors was used.

 

Divided into four stages, the partial painting project begins with the application of paint remover only on the tail of the aircraft to remove the old logo. In the second phase, a sander enters the scene to remove the colors from the fuselage and the wing. Then, in the third stage, the paint for the new brand is drawn on the plane and, in the last stage, varnish is applied to ensure shine, durability and avoid air friction.

 

The entire partial painting process adopted by the LATAM MRO team, in São Carlos, allows savings of 47% in the use of paint and time in project execution, when compared to total painting. As the project progressed, the company also took the opportunity to include, for the first time, the LATAM brand paint on the belly of the aircraft.

 

To make the project possible, professionals from different areas of the LATAM MRO, including maintenance and painting technicians, spent five days dedicated to updating each aircraft. Altogether, 1,240 hours of each professional dedicated to total painting and 560 hours of each professional dedicated to partial painting. About 500 liters of paint and 120 liters of varnish were used for the entire project.

 

Creation of the LATAM Brand

 

The entire process of creating the LATAM brand took place after the completion of the merger between LAN and TAM, in 2012. The new brand was introduced worldwide in 2015 to bring together all passenger and cargo affiliates that make up the LATAM Group. In 2016, LATAM debuted its new brand new global brand on its planes, uniforms and airports.

 

The visual identity was created to express the Latin American spirit and LATAM values. Indigo and coral were chosen as the main colors. In indigo, the representation of efficiency and elegance; in choir, the idea of ​​mirroring all the warm, passionate, people-focused side. For the development of the new logo, two essential pillars: a genuinely Latin American brand and the idea of ​​expansion. In addition to the search for a visual result capable of expressing LATAM's movement around the world.

 

“The broadly visible LATAM identity at airports and aircraft is one of the most important points for consolidating our brand. Therefore, the completion of the renovation of the aircraft paintwork becomes even more relevant in our relationship with customers”, highlighted Diogo Elias, Sales and Marketing director at LATAM Brazil.

 

*NOTE: This publication was written in Portuguese (Brazil) and automatically translated by Google robots to English. MORE THAN FLY, adopted Google technology for everyone around the world to have access to information and optimize our time and budget with translations. We ask for common sense to take into account translation errors. After all, every robot is limited and is never compared to the superiority of a human intelligence.