JERUSALEM, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- A direct flight line between Israel and South America, the first in seven years, was launched Wednesday by the Brazilian-Chilean airline LATAM at a press conference held in the coastal city of Tel Aviv.
As of December 13th, the company will operate three weekly flights between Tel Aviv and Sao Paulo, the largest city in Brazil. The flights will take place on Dreamliner 787 aircrafts and will take about 15 hours. The flights will continue from Sao Paulo to Santiago, the capital city of Chile.
The starting price for a round trip from Israel to Sao Paulo or Santiago will be 731 U.S. dollars. A Business Class ticket will cost between 2,700 and 3,000 U.S. dollars.
Passengers flying to Sao Paulo will also be able to reach more than 120 destinations across Latin America in countries such as Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay and Paraguay.
The company recently decided to expand its hold on European, the Middle Eastern and African countries, with the Tel Aviv line joining two lines recently launched in Rome and Lisbon. The next line will be inaugurated in Munich and will join Madrid, Paris, Johannesburg and more.
LATAM, the largest airline in Latin America, was established in 2010 by the merger of Chilean LAN Airlines and TAM of Brazil. The company flies to 120 destinations, 40 of them in Brazil.
Until 2011, Israel's El Al airline operated direct flights between Tel Aviv and Sao Paulo, but the line was closed due to heavy losses.
