Early years in service with LAN Chile, 1933 The airline was founded by
Chilean Air Force Commodore Arturo Merino Benítez (after whom
Santiago International Airport is named), and began operations on March 5, 1929, as
Línea Aeropostal Santiago-Arica (English:
Postal Air Line Santiago-Arica), under the government of President
Carlos Ibáñez del Campo. In 1932 It was rebranded as
Línea Aérea Nacional de Chile (English:
National Air Line of Chile), using the acronym LAN Chile as its commercial name. LAN Chile's first fleet consisted of
de Havilland Moth planes. Merino Benitez was a strong defender of Chilean carriers' exclusivity on domestic routes, differing from most Latin American countries which easily granted authorization on domestic flights to US-based
Panagra, influenced by the propaganda made by
Charles Lindbergh's Atlantic crossing. Also because of this reason, US-built airplanes became more difficult to incorporate to LAN's fleet until the beginning of WWII. In 1936, 2 French
Potez 560 airplanes were purchased while in 1938, 4 German
Junkers Ju 86Bs were incorporated into the fleet. During that same year, a cooperation agreement was established with
Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano and the Peruvian carrier
Faucett. Another agreement with
Lufthansa was signed for flights to and from Europe and America's Atlantic coast. In December 1954, LAN Chile made its first commercial flight to Lima, Perú. On December 22, 1956, a LAN Chile
Douglas DC-6B made the world's first commercial flight over
Antarctica. Since then, all of LAN's DC-6 fleet had painted on their fuselage
Primeros sobre la Antártica ("The first over Antarctica"), using this same aircraft type for its first commercial service to
Miami International Airport in 1958. LAN Chile entered the jet era in 1963, purchasing three French
Sud Aviation Caravelle VI-R, which initially flew to
Miami, Guayaquil, Lima,
Panama City and within Chile to Punta Arenas, Puerto Montt and Antofagasta. at
Paris-Orly Airport in 1981 In 1966, LAN Chile purchased its first
Boeing 707 from
Lufthansa, in exchange for flying rights in the Lima-Santiago route. With this aircraft model, the company developed new long-haul routes to the US, Oceania, and Europe. LAN-Chile started on April 15, 1967, the route Santiago-
John F. Kennedy International Airport and Santiago-
Easter Island on April 8. In October 1967 a LAN Chile Sud Aviation Caravelle made the first
ILS landing in South America at Lima's
Jorge Chávez International Airport. On January 16, 1968, the Santiago-Easter Island flight was extended to
Papeete-Faa'a International Airport, in
Tahiti,
French Polynesia using a
Douglas DC-6B. The airline then introduced Boeing 707 jet service on the Santiago – Easter Island –Papeete, Tahiti route in April 1970. On September 4, 1974, this route was extended to Fiji. In 1969, LAN Chile expanded its destinations to
Rio de Janeiro, Asunción and
Cali with new
Boeing 727s. The restrictions imposed by the growing metropolitan area of Santiago and the need for modern, jet-era airport facilities that could safely accommodate both domestic and intercontinental flights, drove the need to relocate the Chilean capital's principal airport from Los Cerrillos to the denser southwest metropolitan region of Santiago to the more rural northwest metropolitan area. For this reason,
Santiago International Airport in Pudahuel was built between 1961 and 1967, fully moving LAN Chile's flights to this new airport in 1970. at Pudahuel Airport Santiago in 1972 On February 10, 1974, a LAN-Chile Boeing 707 flown by captain Jorge Jarpa Reyes made the world's first transpolar non-stop flight between South America (
Punta Arenas Airport) and
Australia (
Sydney Kingsford-Smith Airport). In 1980, the company replaced its Boeing 727s with the
Boeing 737-200 on its domestic routes. Also,
McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30s, LAN Chile's first wide-body jets, were added for use on routes to Los Angeles, Miami, and New York. That same year, the maintenance facilities were relocated from Los Cerrillos to Arturo Merino Benítez Airport. In 1985, LAN-Chile implemented a program of flights around the world called
Cruceros del Aire ("Air Cruises"), pioneers and unique in Latin America. The initial version included two flights per year (April 26 and September 26) on a Boeing 707 named
Three Oceans because it crossed the Atlantic, Indian and South Pacific oceans, visiting 18 different places. The aircraft was specially prepared for these flights. It had 80 seats in first class, thus providing passengers with ample room for their comfort. Eighty tourists were selected for a 31-day tour that included visits to the main cities of Africa, Asia and Oceania. Such flights were made until 1989, marketed according to their route under various names such as "Around the World", "Three Oceans", "Three Continents", "Mediterranean","East-West China", etc. at
Frankfurt Airport in 1994 In June 1986,
Boeing 767-200ERs replaced the DC-10 fleet, with a new route to
Montréal–Mirabel International Airport. In 1988, LAN Chile started construction of its maintenance center at Santiago Airport and added a
Boeing 747-100 on lease from
Aer Lingus to its fleet during the summer season for its US flights.
Privatization and internationalization In September 1989, the Chilean government privatized the carrier, selling a majority stake in the company to
Icarosan and
Scandinavian Airlines (49%), which subsequently sold its stake a few years later to local investors. Since 1994, major shareholders have been the Cueto Family and businessman
Sebastián Piñera (until 2010), who sold his shares when taking office as President of the Republic of Chile. The approval from the Chilean Anti-Trust Authority resulted in the acquisition of the country's second-largest airline
Ladeco on August 11, 1995. In October 1998, LAN-Chile merged its cargo subsidiary Fast Air Carrier with Ladeco, forming
LAN Express. In 1998, LAN established a joint venture with
Lufthansa called LLTT (
Lufthansa-LAN Technical Training S.A.) with the aim of satisfying the needs for aircraft maintenance training in Latin America. LLTT was the only A320 Maintenance Simulator (CMOS) training provider in Latin America. In 2000,
LAN Cargo opened up a major operations base at
Miami International Airport and currently operates one of its largest cargo facilities there. In 2002, LAN Chile started its internationalization process through
LAN Perú and
LAN Ecuador. landing at
Frankfurt Airport in 2010 In March 2004, LAN-Chile and its subsidiaries, LAN Perú, LAN Ecuador,
LAN Dominicana and
LAN Express, became unified under the unique LAN brand and livery, eliminating each airline country name on the brands. On June 17, 2004, LAN-Chile changed its formal name to LAN Airlines (which was said to mean
Latin American Network Airlines, even though the airline says LAN is no longer an acronym) as part of this re-branding and internationalization process; although, when founded in 1929, LAN originally meant "Línea Aérea Nacional" (National Airline). In March 2005, LAN opened its subsidiary
LAN Argentina in Argentina and operates national and international flights from
Buenos Aires, and is the third-largest local operator behind
Aerolíneas Argentinas and Austral. This subsidiary is also under the LAN brand. As of August 1, 2006, LAN merged first and business classes of service into a single class, named
Premium Business. On October 28, 2010, LAN acquired 98% of the shares of
AIRES, the second-largest air carrier in Colombia. On December 3, 2011, AIRES started operating as
LAN Colombia under the unified
LAN livery. Since May 5, 2016, LAN has been operating as LATAM Airlines. The airline opened many routes during 2017, one of them being the longest flight in their history: Santiago to Melbourne, which started operating October 5 of that year.
LATAM Airlines Group , which flies mainly medium to long haul routes, as well as a few domestic routes. On August 13, 2010, LAN Airlines signed a non-binding agreement with Brazilian Airline TAM Linhas Aéreas for the purchase of LAN from TAM Linhas Aéreas to form the LATAM Airlines Group. The purchase was completed on June 22, 2012. The Brazilian Administrative Council for Economic Defense ("CADE") and the Court for the Defense of Free Competition ("TDLC") approved the purchase subject to mitigation measures. The airlines have to relinquish four daily slot pairs from São Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport to other airlines willing to fly the Santiago-São Paulo route, waive membership in Star Alliance (of which TAM Linhas Aéreas was a member) or Oneworld, and interline agreements with other airlines operating selected routes, among other provisions. It still continued to use its "LAN CHILE" call sign, as well as its post-merger IATA and ICAO identities for its LATAM-operated flights. During the first half of 2018, the airline experienced problems due to the Rolls-Royce engines on its Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet, having grounded at least six of them since February 2018. In April 2018, its domestic subsidiary LATAM Express suffered a major workers' strike. This caused several economic losses for the airline. Later that year they began to recover from this and were expected to resume 787 deliveries for 2019, which resumed with CC-BGO in November of that year. On May 26, 2020, LATAM filed for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States due to economic problems attributed to the
impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on aviation, although they are currently operating and have been negotiating terms. In August, the company announced its second-quarter results, projecting improved operational prospects. ==Corporate affairs==