MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chile: Airline wars continue

The battle between Chile's three principle domestic airlines, LAN, Sky and Aerolínes del Sur has become increasingly heated over the past months.

LAN, continually rated as the region's best airline, dominates the domestic market - last year 78 percent of Chile's domestic passengers chose LAN, 17.6 percent flew Sky and 7.6 percent chose Aerolíneas del Sur. LAN continues to challenge the competition, with promotional deals cutting ticket prices up to 20 percent in the past month. LAN has recently shown interest in the lucrative Brazilian market, the company attempted to acquire the defunct Varig airline, but the Brazilian budget airline Gol beat them to it. Shares of Lan stock fell nearly 3 percent only minutes after the buyout was announced. LAN, however, does not appear discouraged. The airline currently operates in Argentina, Ecuador and Peru, and will continue efforts to expand to Brazil: "LAN is making the Brazilian market our number one priority" says company president Jorge Awad. Air travel is significantly rising in Chile - ticket sales increased an average of 13 percent in February as a record-breaking numbers of passengers took to the skies. Approximately 466,700 passengers flew internationally and 307,000 domestically in February, increases of 18.5 percent and 7.6 percent respectively from the previous month. As LAN looks to expand internationally, Aerolineas del Sur and Sky continue to battle for domestic traffic, cutting prices and improving services. According to the latest figures, Sky is maintaining the number two position - Aerolínes del Sur surpasses Sky's ticket sales only on two domestic routes, Santiago â€" Punta Arenas and Puerto Montt Punta Arenas. The Santiago Times