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Santiago, Chile, March 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 traffic statistics and punctuality indicators for February 2008.
System passenger traffic for February increased 15.8% as capacity rose 15.1%. As a result, the Company´s load factor increased 0.5 points to 81.0%. International passenger traffic accounted for approximately 85% of total passenger traffic.
International passenger traffic for February rose 13.3% as capacity increased 14.8%. Accordingly, the international passenger load factor for the month decreased 1.1 points to 81.1%. 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 32.6% as capacity increased 17.3%. As a consequence, the domestic load factor for the month increased 9.3 points to 80.2%. 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 and at the beginning of 2008, LAN has successfully fulfilled is commitment to enable more people to fly, offering passengers more convenient pricing.
Cargo traffic increased 11.7% as capacity rose 14.5%. As a consequence, the cargo load factor decreased 1.8 points to 72.9%. Cargo traffic grew mainly as a result of stronger imports into the region, especially to Brazil . This was partially offset by the continued weakness of exports from South America , mainly from the Brazilian market.
In February, 80.8% 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 6.7 points compared to the same month of 2007.
