LAN Airlines July Traffic up 16% YoY

LAN Airlines S.A. and its subsidiaries LFL today reported its preliminary monthly traffic statistics and punctuality indicators for July 2011. During July, system passenger traffic increased 16.0% as capacity rose 11.4%. As a result, the Company's load factor for the month increased 3.2 points to 82.5%. International passenger traffic accounted for approximately 69.8% of total passenger traffic. Starting in January 2011, these figures include AIRES' domestic and international operations. Domestic passenger traffic in Chile, Argentina, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia rose 16.3% as capacity increased 14.6%. As a consequence, the domestic passenger load factor in July increased 1.2 points to 80.1%. International passenger traffic grew 15.9%, while capacity increased 10.1%. Accordingly, the international passenger load factor for the month increased 4.2 points to 83.5%. During July, cargo traffic rose 13.2% as capacity increased 11.1%. As a consequence, the cargo load factor increased 1.2 points to 69.3%. Traffic and capacity grew due to the arrival of three new Boeing 767F freighters between November 2010 and January 2011. These aircraft have been assigned to boost growth in the Latin American, United States West Coast and Mexican markets. During July, 78.4% 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 represented an increase of 4.4 points compared to July 2010.