LAN Seeks to Grab a Quarter of the Argentine Market

Chile´s LAN is bent on nabbing 25 percent of the Argentine air market based on a recent agreement signed with the administration of President Nestor Kirschner, that has been making headlines in the local press.

Two years from now, we´d love to have 1,500 people working for us and some 15 planes up in the air, with four or five jetliners covering international routes that will make up 20 to 25 percent of the Argentine market, said Julio Vidal, general manager of the LAN affiliate in this country.

We´re not here to take out competitors, but rather to make the air market grow, Mr. Vidal was quoted as saying in local newspaper Ambito Financiero de Buenos Aires.

In this respect, Mr. Vidal remembered that "in none of the two nations where LAN has landed -Peru and Ecuador- anybody has been shoved out the market."

Through the agreement, the Chilean airline is committed to keeping Argentina´s private-run airline Southern Winds running for at least three more months. Southern Winds filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this week.

With this view in mind, LAN will spin off LAN Argentina through the purchase (already a done deal) of a local airline in partnership with Argentine companies. The Argentinean government, for its part, agreed to help pass constitutional amendments to guarantee operations for the newly created enterprise.