LATAM slashes aircraft inspection costs and time with drones

South American airline group LATAM is among the growing ranks of global carriers benefitting from the reduced costs and time required to perform aircraft inspections with automated drones rather than traditional manual methods.

LATAM communicated updates on its use of drones in its aircraft inspection and maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) systems earlier this month. The airline said continued testing of the aerial technique is allowing it to be expanded within the company’s network.

Significantly, LATAM said flight of tech-packed automated UAVs had cut the time of performing inspection on its aircraft from eight hours to just 40 minutes.

That result wasn’t obtained overnight. LATAM initially began trialing drones for aircraft inspection in late 2019, partnering with specialized French UAV services group Donecle to oversee the process. As the application demonstrated its value in LATAM’s main service center in São Carlos, Brazil, the…