MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

LAN profits soar and plans to invest 7.7 billion USD to double its fleet

The Chilean flag carrier is the leading Latinamerican airline

LAN Airlines which this week reported a doubling of third-quarter profit plans to invest 7.72 billion US dollars through 2018 to more than double its fleet as Latin American passenger and cargo traffic recovers.

Quarterly sales climbed to $1.12 billion from $884 million. Lan reported Oct. 8 that cargo traffic increased 20.4 percent in September from a year earlier due to a recovery in imports to Latin American driven by Brazil. Passenger traffic rose 14.4 percent in the same month, driven by routes to Europe and the U.S.

The region’s biggest carrier by market value will invest 1.15 billion next year, from 424 million USD this year, and increase its aircraft to 222 in the next eight years, according to a presentation published on its website.

The Santiago-based airline’s passenger capacity probably will grow by 15% to 17% next year while cargo capacity is set to expand as much as 15%, it wrote after reporting quarterly net income of $106 million compared with $52.1 million a year ago.