LAN Slashes Chile-South America Fares to Promote Tourism, Air Travel
Chile’s flag-carrier LAN announced that as of Wednesday it will cut Chile-South America fares as much as 40 percent. For years LAN has used what is known as the low-cost carrier model on its domestic flights, which has greatly reduced fares on its domestic flights and increased traffic.
The Chilean carrier has successfully applied the model since 2006 for its domestic routes The Chilean carrier has successfully applied the model since 2006 for its domestic routes
The airline, in a bid to make air travel a more-common method of travel and to gain a bigger foothold in the region, disclosed permanently reduced rates on routes to Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador and Peru.
“This is an excellent opportunity to boost tourism in South America; it’s a great leap forward so that more people travel in LAN since these fares are here to stay,” Nicolas Goldstein, LAN regional business manager, said in a statement.
“The important thing is that to have access to these new fares travelers must plan their trips with at least two months anticipation”, added Goldstein.
The objective of the Chilean airline is for air travel to become a more common, every day transport, and closer to the people and to promote South American tourism in Chile.
LAN at the end of 2006 announced for the first time this model of fare-reduction for domestic flights and since its implementation the number of passengers transported has doubled in the last five years from 2,427,834 in 2006 to 5,263,191 in 2011.
In a separate interview with a local newspaper Wednesday, Goldstein said the upcoming merger with Brazil's TAM SA, planned to take place early in the second quarter of this year, could further reduce fares on the Chile-Brazil route.
With the merger, the resulting LATAM Airlines is expected to become the biggest in the region and one of the 10 biggest airlines in the world in terms of revenue.
