LATAM Airlines Group has begun to ship its aircraft parts from Chile to its maintenance facility at Miami International Airport for repair and then send them back to South America, all without paying federal import taxes, because of its new status as an operator within MIA’s Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ) magnet site.

LATAM Group is the first approved operator within MIA’s FTZ magnet site, which allows airport tenants to import materials that can then be manufactured, repaired, stored, and/or re-distributed anywhere on MIA property, with the federal tariffs on those materials deferred, reduced, or eliminated - providing valuable time and cost savings.

Companies within an FTZ are able to defer paying duties until the products exit the site, reduce duties on combined finished products instead of on each individual product, and eliminate duties on products being imported to the site and then re-exported. Companies handling high-traffic commodities at MIA such as pharmaceuticals, electronics, textiles, auto parts, aircraft parts, avionics, machinery equipment, consumer goods, and perishables are ideal operators for MIA’s FTZ magnet site.

We are very proud and excited to be the first airline to achieve this important certification at MIA. This opens the door to significant benefits and savings opportunities for cross-docking technical materials entering and leaving the United States. In the long run, this certification is going to provide LATAM Airlines with further opportunities to expand in the FTZ.

Ricardo Zuniga, Supply Chain and Logistics Director at LATAM Airlines USA

We applied for the magnet site designation to make MIA even more cost-efficient for our cargo partners, and we are delighted to see LATAM Group lead the way in taking advantage of this new service. The magnet site opens the door to a variety of time- and cost-saving opportunities for cargo handlers at MIA.

Ralph Cutié, MIA Director and CEO