BY CHRONICLE STAFF
Chile-based LAN Airlines posted another strong year, thanks to growth in cargo and passenger traffic and in several markets. The airline managed to boost revenues by 16.2 percent to $3.5 billion, while net income grew 27.8 percent to $308 million. The strong growth came despite challenges such as fuel hikes.
LAN is not alone among Latin American airlines that had a good year. "In December,
"LAN does a lot of things right," says Booth, explaining the airlines success. "They have one of the highest net operating margins in the industry, i.e. 12 percent or better. And also one of the highest fleet utilization numbers at 11 plus hours daily."
For starters, to avoid suffering from the constant fuel price fluctuations, LAN...