LATAM Airlines
LATAM Airlines Chile[Silvio Pettirossi International Airport|], formerly known as LAN Chile and LAN Airlines, is a Chilean multinational airline based in Santiago and one of the founding companies of the LATAM Airlines Group, the largest airline holding company in Latin America. Its main hubs are in the Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport in Santiago, Guarulhos International Airport in São Paulo and Jorge Chávez International Airport in Lima, with secondary hubs in Bogotá, Quito, Guayaquil and
Asunción.
LAN was the flag carrier of Chile until its privatization in the 1990s; it is the predominant airline in Chile, Ecuador, and Peru, the largest carrier in Brazil, and the second-largest in Colombia, through its local subsidiaries. LATAM is the largest airline in Latin America, serving Latin America, North America, the Caribbean, Oceania, Asia, and Europe. The carrier was a member of the Oneworld airline alliance from 2000 until 2020.
LATAM Airlines Group was formed after the takeover by LAN of Brazilian airline TAM Linhas Aéreas, which was completed on June 22, 2012. In August 2015, it was announced that both airlines would rebrand as LATAM, with one livery to be applied on all aircraft by 2018. Currently, LATAM Chile and LATAM Brasil continue to work as separate companies, under LATAM Airlines Group acting as the parent company. 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.
File:Douglas DC-6B, Lan Chile JP7769665.jpg|thumb|left|DC-6 at Los Angeles 1965
In 1940, given the restrictions imposed during WWII on access to spare parts for the Junkers BMW engines, LAN Chile had to replace them with Lockheed Model 10A Electras, 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-6B made the world's first commercial flight over Antarctica. Since then, all of 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.
File:CC-CCK-Boeing707-1981.jpg|thumb|left|A LAN-Chile Boeing 707-320 at Paris-Orly Airport in 1981
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. 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 southwest 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 to the denser southwest 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.
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 the Boeing 737-200 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 Benítez 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.
File:LanChile Boeing 767-200 at Frankfurt 1994.jpg|thumb|left|A former LAN-Chile Boeing 767-200ER at Frankfurt Airport in 1994
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 established a joint venture with Lufthansa called LLTT with the aim of satisfying the needs for aircraft maintenance training in Latin America. LLTT was based at LAN's hangars in Arturo Merino Benítez Airport. LLTT was 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.
File:LAN Airbus A340-313X; CC-CQC@FRA;08.08.2010 585cz.jpg|thumb|A former LAN Airlines Airbus A340-300 landing at Frankfurt Airport in 2010
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 March 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 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.
Since May 5, 2016, LAN has been operating as LATAM Airlines. 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.