LAN Airlines Monthly Statistics Report for February 2010
System passenger traffic for February increased 9.6% as capacity rose 7.1%. As a result, the Company's load factor increased 1.9 points to 81.9%. International passenger traffic accounted for approximately 69% of total passenger traffic. These figures consider flight cancellations on February 27th and February 28th due to the shutdown of the Santiago International Airport as a result of the earthquake that affected Chile on February 27, 2010.
LAN Airlines S.A. and its subsidiaries, ("LAN" or "the Company") (NYSE: LFL / IPSA: LAN), one of the leading airlines in Latin America, today reported its preliminary monthly traffic statistics and punctuality indicators for February 2010.
System passenger traffic for February increased 9.6% as capacity rose 7.1%. As a result, the Company's load factor increased 1.9 points to 81.9%. International passenger traffic accounted for approximately 69% of total passenger traffic. These figures consider flight cancellations on February 27th and February 28th due to the shutdown of the Santiago International Airport as a result of the earthquake that affected Chile on February 27, 2010.
Domestic passenger traffic in Chile, Argentina, Peru and Ecuador rose 7.9% as capacity increased 1.5%. As a consequence, the domestic load factor for the month increased 5.0 points to 83.1%.
International passenger traffic for February rose 10.4% as capacity increased 9.7%. Accordingly, the international passenger load factor for the month increased 0.5 points to 81.4%. International capacity was mainly driven by an increase in operations on routes to the United States and Europe.
During the month of February, cargo traffic increased 31.4%. This increase was mainly due to the recovery in imports to Latin America driven by Brazil, as well as increased operations to Europe with the B777-200 freighter fleet. In-line with the higher demand, capacity grew 25.7%. As a result, the cargo load factor rose 3.0 points to 68.1%.
During February, 83.8% 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 represented a decrease of 7.6 points compared to February 2009. Punctuality figures exclude operations on February 27th and 28th in Santiago when the Santiago International Airport was closed.
