LATAM Chile


LATAM Airlines, formerly LAN Airlines S.A. and LAN-Chile, is an airline based in Santiago, Chile, and is one of the founders of LATAM Airlines Group, Latin America's largest airline holding company. The main hub is Comodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport, with secondary hubs in El Dorado, Jorge Chávez, Mariscal Sucre, and José Joaquín de Olmedo airports.
LAN Airlines was the flag carrier of Chile until its privatization in the 1990s, is the predominant airline in Chile and Peru, and the second-largest carrier in Colombia and Ecuador, through its local subsidiaries. LAN is the largest airline in Latin America, serving Latin America, Northern America, the Caribbean, Oceania, Asia and Europe. The carrier has been a member of the Oneworld airline alliance from 2000 to 2020.
LATAM Airlines Group was formed after the takeover by LAN of Brazilian TAM Airlines, which was completed on June 22, 2012. In August 2015, it was announced that the two airlines would fully rebrand as LATAM, with one livery to be applied on all aircraft by 2018. Currently, LATAM Chile and LATAM Brazil continue to work as separate companies, under LATAM Airlines Group acting as the executive management. LATAM Airlines Group is currently the largest airline corporation in Latin America.

History

Early years

The airline was founded by Chilean Air Force Commodore Arturo Merino Benítez, and began operations on March 5, 1929 as Línea Aeropostal Santiago-Arica, under the government of President Carlos Ibáñez del Campo. In 1932 It was rebranded as Línea Aérea Nacional de Chile, using the acronym LAN-Chile as its commercial name. LAN-Chile's first fleet consisted of de Havilland Moth planes.
Merino Benitez was a strong defender of Chilean carriers exclusivity on domestic routes, differing from most Latin American countries which easily granted authorization on domestic flights to US-based Panagra, influenced by the propaganda made by Charles Lindbergh's Atlantic crossing. Also because of this reason, US-built airplanes became more difficult to incorporate to LAN's fleet until the beginning of WWII. In 1936, 2 French Potez 560 airplanes were purchased while in 1938, 4 German Junkers Ju 86Bs were incorporated into the fleet. During that same year, a cooperation agreement was established with Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano and the Peruvian carrier Faucett. Another agreement with Lufthansa was signed for flights to and from Europe and America's Atlantic coast.
In 1940, given the restrictions imposed during WWII on access to spare parts for the Junker's BMW engines, LAN-Chile had to replace them with Lockheed Electra 10-A planes, adding in 1941 further Lockheed Lodestar C-60 and Douglas DC-3 in 1945.

Post-war and international service expansion

On August 23, 1945, LAN-Chile became a member of the newly formed IATA. In October 1946, it started international service to Buenos Aires at Morón Airport and in 1947 to Punta Arenas, Chile's most distant continental destination.
In December 1954, LAN-Chile made its first commercial flight to Lima, Perú. On December 22, 1956 a LAN-Chile Douglas DC-6 made the world's first commercial flight over Antarctica. Since then, all LAN's DC-6 fleet had painted on their fuselage "Primeros sobre la Antártica ", using this same aircraft type for its first commercial service to Miami International Airport in 1958.
LAN-Chile entered the jet era in 1963, purchasing three French Sud Aviation Caravelle VI-R, which initially flew to Miami, Guayaquil, Lima, Panama City and within Chile to Punta Arenas, Puerto Montt and Antofagasta.
In 1966, LAN-Chile purchased its first Boeing 707 from Lufthansa, in exchange for flying rights in the Lima-Santiago route. With this aircraft model, the company developed new long haul routes to the US, Oceania and Europe. LAN-Chile started on April 15, 1967, the route Santiago-John F. Kennedy International Airport and Santiago-Easter Island on April 8. In October 1967 a LAN-Chile Sud Aviation Caravelle made the first ILS landing in South America at Lima's Jorge Chávez International Airport. On January 16, 1968, the Santiago-Easter Island flight was extended to Papeete-Faa'a International Airport, in Tahiti, French Polynesia using a Douglas DC-6B propliner. The airline then introduced Boeing 707 jet service on the Santiago - Easter Island - Papeete, Tahiti route in April 1970. On September 4, 1974, this route was extended to Fiji.
In 1969, LAN-Chile expanded its destinations to Rio de Janeiro, Asunción and Cali with new Boeing 727s. In 1970, with Boeing 707s LAN-Chile opened its first transatlantic routes to Madrid–Barajas Airport, Frankfurt Airport and Paris-Orly.
Since its inception and until 1970 the airline had its headquarters, main hub and maintenance center at Los Cerrillos Airport, in South-West Santiago. The restrictions imposed by the growing metropolitan area of Santiago and the need for modern, jet-era airport facilities that could safely accommodate both domestic and intercontinental flights, drove the need to relocate the Chilean capital's principal airport from Los Cerrillos in the denser south-west metropolitan region of Santiago to the more rural northwest metropolitan area. For this reason, Santiago International Airport in Pudahuel was built between 1961 and 1967, fully moving LAN-Chile's flights to this new airport in 1970.
at Pudahuel Airport Santiago in 1972
On February 10, 1974, A LAN Chile Boeing 707 flown by captain Jorge Jarpa Reyes made the world's first transpolar non-stop flight between South America and Australia.
In 1980, the company replaced its Boeing 727s with 737-200 Advanced on its domestic routes. Also, McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30s, LAN Chile's first wide-body jets, were added for use on routes to Los Angeles, Miami and New York. That same year, the maintenance facilities were relocated from Los Cerrillos to Arturo Merino Benitez Airport.
In 1985, LAN-Chile implemented a program of flights around the world called Cruceros del Aire, pioneers and unique in Latin America. The initial version included two flights per year on a Boeing 707 named Three Oceans because it crossed the Atlantic, Indian and South Pacific oceans, visiting 18 different places. The aircraft was specially prepared for these flights. It had 80 seats in first class, thus providing passengers with ample room for their comfort. Eighty tourists were selected for a 31-day tour that included visits to the main cities of Africa, Asia and Oceania. Such flights were made until 1989, marketed according to their route under various names such as "Around the World", "Three Oceans", "Three Continents", "Mediterranean","East-West China", etc.
at Frankfurt
In June 1986, Boeing 767-200ERs replaced the DC-10 fleet, with a new route to Montréal–Mirabel International Airport.
In 1988, LAN Chile started construction of its Maintenance Center at Santiago Airport and added a Boeing 747-100 on lease from Aer Lingus to its fleet during the summer season for its US flights.

Privatization and internationalization

In September 1989, the Chilean government privatized the carrier, selling a majority stake in the company to Icarosan and Scandinavian Airlines, which subsequently sold its stake a few years later to local investors. Since 1994, major shareholders have been the Cueto Family and businessman Sebastián Piñera, who sold his shares when taking office as President of the Republic of Chile.
The approval from the Chilean Anti-Trust Authority resulted in the acquisition of the country's second-largest airline Ladeco on August 11, 1995. In October 1998, Lan Chile merged its cargo subsidiary Fast Air Carrier with Ladeco, forming LAN Express.
In 1998 LAN Airlines established a joint venture with Lufthansa called LLTT with the aim to satisfy the needs for aircraft maintenance training in Latin America. LLTT is based at LAN's hangars in Comodoro Arturo Merino Benitez Airport. LLTT is the only A320 Maintenance Simulator training provider in Latin America.
In 2000, LAN Cargo opened up a major operations base at Miami International Airport and currently operates one of its largest cargo facilities there.
In 2002, LAN Chile started its internationalization process through LAN Perú and LAN Ecuador.
operate on medium-haul and long-haul routes.
Since May 5, 2016, LAN Airlines has been operating as LATAM Chile. The airline opened many routes during 2017, one of them being the longest flight in their history: Santiago to Melbourne, which started operating October 5 of that year.
In March 2004, Lan Chile and its subsidiaries, LAN Perú, LAN Ecuador, LAN Dominicana and LAN Express, became unified under the unique LAN brand and livery, eliminating each airline country name on the brands. On June 17, 2004, LAN Chile changed its formal name to LAN Airlines as part of this re-branding and internationalization process; although, when founded in 1929, LAN originally meant "Línea Aérea Nacional".
In mid-2005, LAN opened its subsidiary LAN Argentina in Argentina and operates national and international flights from Buenos Aires, and is the third-largest local operator behind Aerolíneas Argentinas and Austral. This subsidiary is also under the LAN brand.
As of August 1, 2006, LAN Airlines merged first and business classes of service into a single class, named Premium Business.
On October 28, 2010, LAN acquired 98% of the shares of AIRES, the second-largest air carrier in Colombia. On December 3, 2011, AIRES started operating as LAN Colombia under the unified LAN livery.

LATAM Airlines Group

On August 13, 2010, LAN signed a non-binding agreement with Brazilian airline TAM Airlines to merge, and form the LATAM Airlines Group. The merger was completed on June 22, 2012. The Administrative Council of Economic Defense of Brazil and the Tribunal de Defensa de la Libre Competencia approved the merger subject to mitigation measures. The airlines have to surrender four daily São Paulo–Guarulhos International Airport slot pairs to other airlines willing to fly the Santiago-São Paulo route, to give up membership in either Star Alliance or Oneworld, and to interline deals with other airlines that operate selected routes, among other provisions. It still continued to use their call sign "LAN Chile" as well as their IATA and ICAO identifies after the merger for their flights operated by LATAM Chile.
During the first half of 2018, the airline was struggling due to the Rolls Royce engines on their Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet, having grounded at least six of them since February 2018. In April 2018, their domestic subsidiary LAN Express experienced a major worker strike. This has caused several economic losses for the airline. Later that same year they started recovering from that and are expecting to resume 787 deliveries by 2019.

Corporate affairs

The airline has its headquarters on the 20th floor of the 5711 Avenida Presidente Riesco Building in Las Condes, Santiago Province. Previously its headquarters were in Estado 10 in downtown Santiago de Chile.

Subsidiaries

LATAM Chile operates in 31 international, 17 domestic, five seasonal and four marketed destinations in 21 countries. With the delivery of more Airbus A320s and Airbus A321s, it will start new destinations in South America; it has considered Panama, San Jose de Costa Rica, Curitiba, Asunción, Manaus, Rosario, Cuzco and others. LATAM Chile was a popular choice for surfers traveling to South America because of their policy of not charging extra baggage fees. However, starting on December 19, 2016, they changed their policy and now charge US$200 per way for a surfboard bag of up to three boards.
On October 5, 2017, LATAM Chile inaugurated their direct route between Santiago and Melbourne, a 15 hour and flight. It is currently the southernmost commercial point-to-point flight. The flight's great circle passes south of the Antarctic Circle, at a distance of approx 800 km off the Antarctic mainland. The flight numbers are LA805 and LA804.
In November 2017 the company announced the opening of a direct air route to the continent of Asia. The route operates with a flight departing from Santiago, Chile – make a stop in Sao Paulo, Brazil – and from there it proceeds a direct flight to Tel Aviv, Israel. The flights are operated three times a week starting from December 2018. The flights are executed with the company's new Boeing 787 aircraft. This is the second air route operated by a South-American company from South America to Asia.

Codeshare agreements

LATAM Chile codeshares with the following airlines:

Current fleet

, the LATAM Chile fleet consists of the following aircraft:

Fleet development

LATAM Chile became the launch customer for the Pratt & Whitney PW6000 engine on the Airbus A318. Its Airbus A319s and Airbus A320s are equipped with the IAE V2500s or CFM56s engines. LATAM Chile renovated its Boeing 767s, adding amenities like flat bed seats in Premium Business class, which offers 180 degrees of recline, and new touch screen personal TVs with on-demand content.
In May 2008, LATAM Chile retired its last 737-200 from service; the 737-200 was replaced by the Airbus A320s. In addition to its A320 family aircraft and Boeing 767 family, LATAM Chile bought the Boeing 787 for its long haul routes such as Auckland, Sydney and European routes, replacing its Airbus A340-300s, that left the fleet in April 2015. With this new aircraft, they plan to open new routes like Chicago O'Hare and Rome-Fiumicino. In 2011, LATAM Chile ordered 10 A318s but has since sold these to Avianca Brasil, to purchase another 128 airliners from the A320 family and 1 more order of A340-300. That year the airline placed orders for more Airbus A320 and brand new Airbus A321 aircraft. LATAM Chile is the American launch customer for the Sharklets for its A320 fleet.
In 2012, LATAM Chile became the launch customer in the Americas of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
In November 23, 2014, the airline received their first Airbus A321 aircraft. This has been the domestic flagship of the airline ever since.
In April 17, 2015, the airline officially retired the Airbus A340-300 from their fleet, the last one being CC-CQA.
In December 2017 the airline received their first Airbus A320neo aircraft. However, months later these were grounded due to an issue with the Pratt & Whitney PW1000G engines. LATAM Chile faced many problems caused by both groundings of A320neo and Boeing 787 aircraft during 2018. Later that year, they started recovering from that.

Former fleet

LATAM Chile had also operated these following aircraft since it started services on the Santiago-Ovalle, Copiapó-Antofagasta-Iquique-Arica route with a de Havilland Gipsy Moth in 1929.
AircraftIntroducedRetiredReplacementNotes
Airbus A318-10020072013Airbus A320 familyUsed on domestic routes
Airbus A340-30020002015Boeing 787-9
Boeing 707-32019671980McDonnell Douglas DC-10Operated first scheduled international flight to Frankfurt.
Boeing 727-10019681980Boeing 737-200
Boeing 737-20019802008Airbus A320 family
Boeing 747-10019891990Boeing 767-200ER
Boeing 757-20019961997
Boeing 767-200ER19861997Airbus A340-300
Boeing 777-200ER20182019Boeing 787-9
British Aerospace 146–20019901997Airbus A318-100
Convair 44019601968Boeing 727-100
de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter1955
de Havilland DH.60 Moth
de Havilland DH.104 Dove
Douglas DC-319461960Convair 440
Douglas DC-619561967Boeing 707-320Operated first long-haul flight to Miami
Ford 5 AT-C19301934Douglas DC-3
Hawker Siddeley HS 7481964
Lockheed Model 10 Electra1941
Lockheed C-601943
Martin 2-0-21950
McDonnell Douglas DC-10-3019801986Boeing 747-100
Sud Aviation Caravelle19641968Boeing 727-100Operated first long-haul flight to New York City

LATAM Pass

LATAM Chile created the LANPASS frequent flyer program to reward customer loyalty. There are currently over four million members. Every year, over 250,000 LANPASS members fly for free. LANPASS members earn miles every time they fly with LATAM Chile, a Oneworld alliance member, a LANPASS-affiliated airline or by using the services of any LANPASS-associated business around the world.
The LANPASS Program has four Elite membership categories:
On May 5, 2016, LANPASS became known as LATAM Pass, once LAN Airlines fully transitioned into LATAM Chile.

Lounges

LATAM Airlines operates VIP passenger lounges at the following airports:
These lounges are accessible for passengers travelling in LATAM First Class, Premium Business, Business and Premium Economy, as well as senior members of the LATAM PASS program, TAM Fidelidade program and Oneworld respective categories.
The new and renovated LATAM Chile Passenger lounges are designed by Chilean architect Mathias Klotz and Parisian Studio Putman Olivia Putman.

South America AirPass

The "South America AirPass" describes an airfare that allows passengers residing outside of South America to purchase an individual, one-way coupon for flights between any of the South American destinations that make up LAN's network, at a price determined by two factors:
  1. Whether the passenger reaches South America with LATAM or with another Oneworld alliance member.
  2. The distance between the point of departure and the destination.
The purchase of the AirPass coupons must be made at the time intercontinental travel is purchased and outside South America.

Incidents and accidents