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VersionUnited Kingdom
Santiago, Chile, January 10, 2008
LAN Airlines S.A. and its related companies, ("LAN" or "the Company") (NYSE: LFL / IPSA: LAN), one of the leading airline groups in Latin America, reported its preliminary monthly and accumulated traffic statistics and punctuality indicators for December 2007.
System passenger traffic for December increased 13.8% as capacity rose 13.6%. As a result, the Company's load factor increased 0.2 points to 76.0%. International passenger traffic accounted for approximately 85% of total passenger traffic.
International passenger traffic for December rose 11.9% as capacity increased 12.8%. Accordingly, the international passenger load factor for the month decreased 0.6 points to 75.8%. Long-haul capacity grew due to an increase in operations to the United States , Europe, the South Pacific and the Caribbean . Short-haul capacity grew mainly as a result of an expansion in regional operations, as well as expansions in the Argentine and Peruvian domestic markets.
Domestic passenger traffic in Chile rose 25.7% as capacity increased 18.2%. As a consequence, the domestic load factor for the month increased 4.6 points to 77.5%. Growth in domestic traffic primarily resulted from the implementation of the Company's new business model for short haul operations. In this way, during 2007 LAN has successfully fulfilled is commitment to enable more people to fly, offering passengers more convenient pricing.
Cargo traffic increased 7.1% as capacity rose 9.7%. As a consequence, the cargo load-factor decreased 1.8 points to 76.9%. Cargo traffic grew mainly as a result of stronger imports into the region, partially offset by the continued weakness of exports from Brazil .
In December, 80.2% of the Company's total flights left on time, based on a fifteen-minute standard (all departures leaving within fifteen minutes of the scheduled departure time are considered as "on-time"). This rep resented a decrease of 6.2 points compared to the same month of 2006.
