Hi, dear flight-report members and readers!
In this retro-FR I'd like to present a review of the LATAM Brasil flight, taken on late February 2017 from Milan Malpensa (MXP) to Sao Paulo Guarulhos (GRU) on one of LATAM's long-gone A350-900s.
While this FR will be mostly nostalgic, at the same time it has some practical meaning for the coming year, because some of ex-LATAM A359s have now joined Edelweiss Air fleet, retaining the original LATAM's layout and seats at least until the end of 2026 (then these planes will be reconfigured according to Lufthansa Group standards, which are very questionnable).
Intro
My first trip to South America back in 2016 became a reality due to insanely cheap Turkish Airlines tickets BLQ-ISL-GRU-ISL-BLQ for just 220 EUR (it was kind of "super promo" fare which came online in August 2015) with transatlantic legs being operated by TK's spacious and super comfortable B77Ws with 3-3-3 layout and excellent onboard service and with complimentary hotels from TK in Istanbul. During this trip I made a brief visit to Chile (which since became my favorite country in Latin America for quite a long time) with flying over Andes on LATAM Chile's B789 (see the "nostalgic" section of my AKL-SCL FR) and B788. Whereas LA is definitely in another league compared to TK, I was also quite impressed with its level of service on mid-haul flights and of the crews' friendliness.
When I was planning my second trip to South America (I decided to go deep south to Chilean and Argentinian Patagonia) back in summer 2016, I occasionally found even more fascinating fare of LATAM Brasil: the price for MXP-GRU-SCL-GRU-MXP on a variety of dates in February-March 2017 would drop to 220 EUR (the same value as TK ticket was priced a year before, but this time all the way to Santiago!) if one adds first domestic segment MEX-CUN in Mexico on the now-long-gone Interjet. Of course, flying MEX-CUN is obligatory if one doesn't want to lose LATAM's segments. At that time there was simultaneously a Lufthansa's sale to Mexico from Finland: HEL-FRA-MEX-FRA-HEL was priced around 300 EUR for some dates in November-December 2016. It was possible to put MEX-CUN segment between LH's flights and after some thought I put the trigger for these trips to Mexico and Chile.
The trip to Mexico didn't go as planned due to LH's strike in late November 2016, but this force-majeur resulted in flying British Airways instead with 4-class B744 on LHR-MEX leg and I make it to MEX on time to catch the key MEX-CUN flight. On the way from Mexico back I got to fly LH B748 for the first time on MEX-FRA, and it was a very frustrating experience (flying a similar B748 on FRA-MEX in November 2017 resulted in just marginally better experience, but flying MEX-MUC on half-emply A346 on the way back was way better).
My trip to Southern Patagonia in February-March 2017 coincided with the heyday of LATAM's pre-Covid widebody fleet variety. MXP-GRU leg was operated by A359, GRU-SCL - by B77W (LATAM's flagships were reconfigured since), SCL-GRU-MXP - by 2 late-build B763s.
During the pandemic 2020-2021 years LATAM had to go through Chapter 11 restructurization to avoid bankcruptcy and had to retire all the A359s (which then found new operators) and B763s (which were sold for freighter conversion). Since then long-haul and trunk routes from GRU are operated by reconfigured B77Ws, which got modern business cabins, and Chilean-registered Dreamliners via LA's flight interchange program (for these purposes one B789 was re-registered in Brasil).
The Fate of ex-LATAM A359s
LATAM Chile (former LAN) pioneered Dreamliners (with their first B788 delivered in August 2012), and LATAM Brasil (former TAM) pioneered A350s (with their first A359 delivered in December 2015) in the Americas. Pandemic and Chapter 11 process showed that Dreamliners are much suitable widebodies for the current state of South American aviation and all the 13 A359s that joined LATAM fleet before Covid had to leave the fleet. Most of them joined Delta's fleet, which became LATAM's partner (during pandemic LATAM left Oneworld alliance and decided to align to SkyTeam without joining this alliance).
ex-LATAM A359 that joined Delta's fleet: N568DZ (ex PR-XTA), N569DZ (ex PR-XTB - the star of this FR), N570DZ (ex PR-XTE), N571DZ (ex PR-XTF), N572DZ (ex PR-XTH), N573DZ (ex PR-XTI), N574DZ (ex PR-XTJ), N575DZ (ex PR-XTK), N576DZ (ex PR-XTL). During 2025 all these birds were reconfigured from original LATAM's layout into 3-class C40_W40_Y195 layout with modern 1-2-1 Thomson Vantage XL business cabin but with subpar Recaro CL3710 seats in economy. For comparison, the original DL A359s have less premium-heavy C32_W48_Y226 layout.
ex-LATAM A359 that joined Edelweiss's fleet: HB-IHA (ex PR-XTC), HB-IHB (ex PR-XTD), HB-IHC (ex PR-XTG), HB-IHF (ex PR-XTM). All these birds retain the original 2.5-class LATAM layout C30_Y+63_Y246. Also WK is going to take 2 A359s (HS-THQ/R), which were ordered by LATAM and fitted with the same C30_Y+63_Y246 layout, but were not taken up and since have been operated by Hainan Airlines, South African Airways and Thai Airways.
WK's A359s serve some long-haul destinations from ZRH like BOG+CTG, SJO+LIR, PUJ, POP+MBJ, CUN, TPA and some European destinations like TFS, PMI, PRN as well, and sometimes to HRG.
Milan Malpensa Airport (MXP)
MXP is the main airport of the Northern Italy, located west of Milan in quite a distance and connected with the city by rail link and bus service. Most airlines operate from Terminal 1, EasyJet operates from Terminal 2.
From the overpass near T1 I watched an amazing sunset over the Alps.
Check-in hall of T1.
The nostalgic BP for this flight.
From the large windows of the check-in hall my A359s was already visible.
Some nostalgic details that have long diseappeared since. Check-in desks of Meridiana, which in 2018 was rebranded to Air Italy under the patronage of Qatar Airways and went bust in late February 2020 shortly before the pandemic.
Advertisement of Alitalia's MXP-JFK flights, which were operated with A332s. In pandemic 2021 old AZ was eliminated and the new AZ - ITA Airways - was born and inherited part of old AZ's fleet, including A332s. Now A332s (which have obsolete business class and abysmal economy) are almost phased out and will join Azul's fleet.
Air ticket offices. What a names! WOW air (went bust in May 2019), Ernest (went bust in January 2020), AtlasGlobal (went bust in February 2020), Meridiana (went bust in February 2020), Air Moldova (went bust in April 2023). How many airlines went into history shortly before the pandemic!
Airside of T1 before immigration.
FIDs for international and domestic departures from T1.
FIDs for international departures from T1 after immigration. The old Flybe with its very diverse regional fleet went bust in early March 2020, 10 days before the pandemic, then the new Flybe with 10 DH4s in April 2021 and again went bust in January 2023, eventually closing the airline's history. One can also notice that the long-gone Meridiana and Air Moldova had codeshares, that Etihad had codeshare with (and investments into) Jet Airways, which went bust in April 2019 (9W's B77Ws were the first B77Ws in the history scrapped for parts due to their insufficient condition after improper maintenance and storage) and that Aeroflot and Alitalia had codeshares (now SU flights into and over EU are absolutely unimaginable).
A small exibition with Duomo and forest trees near the turn to my concourse. One can also see the cabin crew from my flight on the travolator.
My flight was departing from the gate B09.
Planespotting From T1 MXP
A bit of planespotting from B-gates. EK A380 (A6-EEY) and EI A320 (EI-DER) in the old livery.
The Aircraft
My flight from MXP to GRU was operated by 2016-built PR-XTB (now N569DZ in Delta's fleet). It's the 2nd A350 in the Americas. I was hoping to get the 1st one - PR-XTA (which is now N568DZ), but getting the 2nd was also good. At that time it had the old classic TAM livery. Between mid-December 2018 and mid-April 2019 it was repainted into the new unified LATAM livery.
The 2L door.
The Business Cabin
The business cabin consisted of 30 Jamco Journey seats in 5 rows with 2-2-2 layout. Despite the obsolete layout, these seats are very spacious and provide unlimited footspace compared to the most modern staggered, herringbone or reverse herringbone seats in 1-2-1 layout. The Edelweiss' A359s currently feature the same business cabin, but in WK's colors.
The Front Economy Cabin
The front economy cabin, located between 2L/R and 3L/R doors, consists of 19 rows (rows 20-38 in WK's numeration) in 3-3-3 layout. The front 7 rows, having increased row pitch and recline, make an "economy plus" sub-cabin. In LATAM times "economy plus" rows had dark grey upholstery and regular economy rows had blue upholstery ("LAN" color) for the lateral 3-seaters and red upholstery ("TAM" color) for the central 3-seaters. Now Edelweiss' A359s have WK's blue upholstery for all the rows.
The Rear Economy Cabin
The rear economy cabin consists of 17 rows in 3-3-3 layout (rows 39-55 in WK's numeration).
The Economy Seat
My seat was 41K (in LATAM's numeration) in the front part of the cabin. The seat model is Safran Z300 with customized seatback. The seat is very comfortable with ample padding (I find it to be the best for A350). I didn't measure the seatwidth, but the seat felt spacious (even though the cabin was full to the brim) and I'm sure that seatwidth was 18" (which, for example, is true for Ethiopian A359s with the same seats, which I flew later). The row pitch is very good for long-haul flying. For Edelweiss' economy passengers these A359s is HUGE step up compared to the old A343s with abysmal Recaro CL3710 seats with ultratight row pitch (except only HB-JMC, which was transferred from Swiss and got Z300 seats).
The seat has fabric upholstery, adjustable headrest, IFE with fixed-mount screen and USB port, coat hanger, hard upper seat pocket, bi-fold tray table with cup holder, lower soft seat pocket, soft legrest and universal power socket underseat (2 per 3 seats). Middle seats have power box, but not very bothersome. Waiting on the seat were pillow, blanket and headset. The ergonomics of the seat is excellent.
The seatpocket content: safety card, inflight magazine, duty-free magazine and waste bag.
The blanket and the headset.
The overhead panel doesn't have personal airvents, which is quite common for A350s.
IFE welcoming screen and some examples of its content (which now has only nostalgic value, because WK has its own content in this IFE), including a screenshot of highly adjustable flight map.
The Flight
The pre-departure red & blue cabin lighting.
Safety video in Portuguese.
Checking of flight controls.
Taxiing to the runway.
Cabin lighting before takeoff.
Takeoff from MXP.
The flight map with flight data and screenshots of my far-flung destinations - Sao Paulo and Santiago. 5 years before the full-scale Russian invasion into Ukraine, Kiev and Moscow on the European map…
Inflight views of the front and rear economy cabins in the night moodlighting. On the 2nd and 3rd photo in this gallery one can see the protrusion of the crew rest bunk. For comparison, LATAM's older Dreamliners, as I discovered on AKL-SCL flight, don't have crew rest bunks, and instead have blocks of duo economy seats with increased legroom in the very rear.
Tour de lavatoirie. The lavs are pretty standard.
The service cart with meals near the 4L door.
The meal, consisting of chicken with rice and vegs, salad, cake, crackers, cheese and salad dressing, was very tasty and filling. The cutlery was metallic and there even was a glass for wine. Very high level of service! The crew were very nice.
Meanwhile we were flying over Algiers.
After the meal I took some sleep, and the Z300 seats were excellent for sleeping. When I finally woke up, we were not that far from GRU…
… and the cabin lighting was in "sunrise" mode before the 2nd meal service.
The breakfast was presented similarly as the 1st meal and consisted of croissant, crackers, butter and youghurt. All was tasty, but a bit underwhelming in size.
Inflight views of the front and rear economy cabins in the "sunrise" moodlighting.
The rear galley.
The crew rest bunk's entrance near the galley.
Flight data before the start of the descent.
Moodlighting is turned from "sunrise" to "descent" mode.
Nearing GRU.
Moodlighting in the "landing" mode.
Descending into GRU with Sao Paulo outskirts in sight.
Beautiful approach to GRU with the lights of the greater Sao Paulo under the dawn of the new day.
Condensation on the wing before touchdown.
Touchdown in GRU.
The Economy Cabin After The Flight
A view of the rear economy cabin upon disembarkment.
… and of the front one.
The Business Cabin After The Flight
The crew thankfully permitted me to visit the business cabin and make detailed photos. Let's remind that it consists of 30 Jamco Journey seats in 2-2-2 layout in 5 rows. One can see how spacious are these seats despite the obsolete layout (if the cabin load is not full, having 2 these seats for oneself is a jackpot). The crew even demonstrated me how full-flat mode works. Now in Edelweiss these seats has different upholstery, and there's an actual FR of the C cabin in WK's A359 on the French version of the website.
The A359 Cockpit Tour
And then I dared to ask the crew whether it's possible to visit the cockpit, and shortly after I was told "yes". The Captain - a friendly Brazilian lady - permitted me to visit her workspace and even to sit briefly in her seat. I was striked right into the heart by the level of the hospitality of the amazing flight- and cabin crews. Brazil again confirmed it's status of the country with one of most friendly people in the world! It was my just 2nd visit to a widebody cockpit, with the 1st being on BA B744 after LHR-MEX flight. There definitely was something mystical, because, as I said before, the trip to Mexico was literally connected with this trip to Chile by the MEX-CUN segment, and BA saved both trips when LH went to strike.
And then I said "muito obrigado" pela Capitã e tripulações and left the aircraft, because I had just 2 hours before my next flight to Santiago de Chile in T3 GRU - one of my favorite terminals in the world due to its large variety of airlines and excellent spotting possibilities.
The Aircraft After The Flight
Wing and portside engine view from the jetbridge.
Nose view from the jetbridge.
The aircraft being serviced after the flight.
The beautiful sunrise of the new day - a beautiful day, because then I had GRU-SCL flight on mighty B77W across the Conosur with amazing views - from emerald greenery of Brazilian Highland and its meandring rivers to the Argentinian Pampa and stunning Andes with their top - mount Aconcagua.
Planespotting In GRU From T3 And From Apron
As the bonus to the FR I want to add planespotting from Terminal 3 GRU during my layover and from the bus to the next plane. I absolutely love T3 GRU (built in 2014) for its smart design, airy feeling and excellent spotting in almost any time of the day. Back in 2017 GRU was sharing the title of the busiest Latin American airport with ugly MEX, but now, when part of MEX's traffic went to NLU, GRU definitely reigns in this rating.
FIDs from the transit area as the illustration of the number of interational and domestic flights. My flight JJ8026 to SCL, departing at 08:05, is shown as QF3867.
2008-built PT-MUA - the very first (LA)TAM B77W (from September 2019 to December 2023 it sported "Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge" livery). Back then these birds had dull C56_Y323 layout (3-4-3 Y) with obsolete 2-3-2 business cabins with ancient angle-lie seats (until 2014 JJ B77Ws even had first class which was discontinued since). In 2019-2021 LATAM reconfigured C cabins on all its 10 B77Ws with Thompson Aero Vantage XL seats in 1-2-1 layout (the new layout is C38_Y+50_Y322). Though the oldest 4 B77Ws - 2008-built PT-MUA/B/C/D (the leased ones) - didn't get overhaul for the Y cabins, which feature Weber 5750 seats with old IFE sans USB or power socket (probably it somewhat concerned with the lease terms). If you're taking a flight on a LATAM's B77W, don't forget to take a powerbank, because you cannot know in advance, which tail number you'll get!
A359 (PR-XTE, now N570DZ of Delta) in the new LATAM livery.
2013-built PT-MUI - the second-youngest LATAM's B77W. The 6 2012-2013-built B77Ws - PT-MUE/F/G/H/I/J (owned ones) got a refreshed economy (new seatbacks and upholstery while retaining the same Collins Pinnacle seats) along with the new business cabins.
The 3rd LATAM's A359 (PR-XTC, now HB-IHA of Edelweiss).
PR-XTB, which flew me here, being towed away from the T3.
LH B748 (D-ABYT) in the retro-livery. In my 2nd trip to Mexico in November 2017 I was hoping to get her on my FRA-MEX flight, but got D-ABYO in the then-standard livery (and I'd like to remind that long-haul flying in LH B748 economy is a miserable experience due to abysmal Recaro seats). Unlike daytime FRA-MEX flights with relatively short turnaround, FRA-GRU flights are nighttime, and B748s sit on the ground in GRU half-day until the evening departure back to FRA. The same is applicable to the FRA-EZE flights.
An IB A333 from MAD, another LATAM B77W and arriving (now-long-gone) TP A343 from LIS. I flew on IB's long-gone A346 on their then-longest flights MAD-SCL in 2019 and, whereas the economy cabin was very spacious and comfortable, the abysmal hostile crew ruined the experience. BTW, IB A333s still feature the same business, premium economy and economy cabin as A346 had.
B77E (EI-DBM) of Alitalia. When the old AZ was discontinued in 2021 and the new AZ (ITA) was born, all the B77Es were phased out. This one (with the new reg CS-TSW) found a new life in the EuroAtlantic fleet.
2012-built B763 (PT-MSY) in the LATAM livery. In 2023 it was converted to freighter and now is in LATAM Colombia Cargo fleet.
2012-built B763 (PT-MOB) in the old TAM livery. In 2022-2023 it was converted to freighter and now is in the DHL Aviation fleet. On the backdrop one can see the main building of Terminal 3 to the right, the ATC tower at the center and the obsolete (but still having good spotting possibilities) Terminal 2.
LATAM birds (all in the old TAM livery) near the old Terminal 2. Notice the B77W (PT-MUF) near the domestic sector - probably it has arrived from Manaus (MAO).
BA B77E (RR-powered) from LHR.
AF B77W from CDG.
LX A343 (HB-JMB) from ZRH. Swiss is the only airline operating A343 with first class (back then they were 3-class) and the only operator of 4-class A343s (their current and final layout is F8_C42_W21_Y144). LX since upgauged ZRH-GRU flights to B77Ws. Not bad - to see 3 quadjets (LH B748, TP A343, LX A343) in GRU. Back then EY was also operating AUH-GRU flights on A346, but discontinued it from the summer schedule-2017, and then EK stepped in and upgauged DXB-GRU flights from B77W to A380. Back in February 2016, a year before, I also saw in GRU BA B744, IB A346 and LH A346 (from MUC). Now GRU gets only 2 quadjet flights: EK's A380s and LH's B748s. EZE and MEX get only 1 quadjet flight - LH's B748s and all the other Latin American major airport see only twinjets.
AV A332 in the new livery from BOG (Avianca completely phased out its A332 in 2023 and now its fleet, consisting of B788s, A20Ns, A320s and some A319s is very dull) and G3 B738 near T2.
B77W (PT-MUF) being towed from domestic sector of T2 after the flight from (probably) MAO.
B77W (PT-MUH) that flew me to SCL across the Conosur.
G3 B737 (PR-VBX), phased out in 2024.
UX A332 (EC-JZL) from MAD and a LATAM's B763. Air Europa phased out its A332s in 2020. This one now is in LEVEL fleet.
AD E195 (PR-AXS) in the special livery commemorating AD's milestone of 100 millions passengers. Phased out in May 2025.
Thank you for your attention! I wish your prosperous and happy 2026 year, full of interesting trips and flights! See you in the next FRs!
