LATAM Airlines Group said in its 2Q18 financials that it has now secured a commitment from Rolls-Royce assuring them that its B787 fleet will be fully operational by the end of the year. At the height of the Trent 1000 debacle in June, LATAM Airlines (LA, Santiago de Chile) was forced to ground thirteen of its twenty-four B787s (ten B787-8s and fourteen -9s) although that number has now declined to six.

To mitigate the widebody capacity deficit, LATAM Group was forced to wet-lease in three A330-200s and one B747-400 from Wamos Air (EB, Madrid Barajas) on short-term contracts. The B787s' absence coupled with the increased ACMI costs contributed to LATAM Group's 2Q18 net loss of USD113.6 million.

Given the impact, LATAM has had to reduce its fleet commitments for 2018 by almost 30% as compared to what was previously announced.

"Due to market conditions and industrial delays, we are postponing the arrivals of aircraft, resulting in total fleet commitments for 2018 of USD500 million instead of the USD700 million originally announced," it said.

Among the changes are that the company will no longer add two A320neo and two A321neo in 2018. In addition, LATAM has also extended its sublease contracts with Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad International) for two A350-900s, initially set to return this year, by two more years.

Overall, LATAM will add one more A350 in 2018 and will convert one B767-300(ER) into a freighter for redelivery in 2020. It will also return five aircraft during 2018, therefore ending the year 2018 with an operating fleet of 312 aircraft.