Tag Archives: SCL

American Airlines opens a new facility at Santiago, Chile

November 9, 2018 was the date when American Airlines officially inaugurated its new facilities in the northwestern area of Arturo Merino Benítez international airport (SCL), despite the fact they were already operating from some months.

These comprises an area of 16,000 square meters; of these, 2,000 sqm belong to a two floor building with offices, classroom, storage of spare parts, technical library and resting areas for the 57 professionals that work there.

The tarmac is able to hold the two airliners that daily operates AA routes between Chile and the United States. The investment was of US $15 million.

The official opening was highlighted by the presence of US Ambassador in Chile, Carol Z. Perez, and Chile’s minister of Transportation, Gloria Hutt, among American Airlines executives and its workers.

Alvaro Romero reporting from Chile.

All photos by Alvaro Romero.

LAW drops out of the Chilean domestic market, will concentrate on international routes

LAW-Latin American Wings announced on January 8 2018, that is leaving the domestic routes in Chile on January 10, 2018, to fully concentrate in its foreign routes.

LAW flew from Santiago, Chile to Antofagasta, Concepción and Puerto Montt with a fleet of five Boeing 737-300s.

LAW only had a 1.3% passenger share in the domestic market. Its seat occupancy rate was only 43.3%.

LAW will continue to operate from Santiago to Punta Cana, Port-au-Prince, Mendoza, Caracas, Lima and Miami.

Alvaro Romero reporting from Chile.

Top Copyright Photo (all others by LAW): LAW – Latin American Wings (Chilejet) Boeing 737-33R WL CC-ARQ (msn 28869) SCL (Alvaro Romero). Image: 937249.

LAW aircraft slide show:

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JetSMART names its fourth Airbus A320 in honor of Alejo Williamson

JetSMART (Santiago, Chile) on December 19 2017 announced Luis Oliva was the winner of the contest held on its social networks, to name the fourth Airbus A320 of JetSMART, CC-AWD.

The new airliner is named “Alejo Williamson D.”, whose full name matches the registration.

Mr. Williamson was the first Chilean glider pilot to cross the Andes mountains through the tallest heights (between Santiago and Mendoza) on December 12, 1964 flying a Let 13 Blanik registered as CC-K7W. The glider is currently preserved at Chile’s Aviation Museum in Santiago, Cerrillos. Mr. Williamson passed away on June 5 2014.

Airbus A320-232 CC-AWD (msn 8006) arrived at Santiago (SCL) on December 11 2017, from Hamburg (Finkenwerder). CC-AWD features a Condor Austral (vulture) on its tail.

Top Photo: JetSMART.

Alvaro Romero reporting from Santiago, Chile.

Bottom Copyright Photo: JetSmart JetSmart Airbus A320-232 CC-AWD (msn 7691) SCL (Alvaro Romero). Image: 940372. (Alvaro Romero). Image: 940372.

JetSMART:

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Air Canada inaugurates the only nonstop flights from Canada to Melbourne, Australia

Air Canada’s inaugural flight, AC037 Boeing 787 Dreamliner service, departed Vancouver December 1, 2017 in the late evening, and arrived Sunday morning, December 3, 2017 to a water cannon welcome salute at Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport. This arrival marks the only nonstop service linking Canada and Melbourne, Air Canada’s third destination served in Australia. Seasonal service now operates four times weekly between Vancouver and Melbourne until February 4, 2018 and year-round service begins June 1, 2018.

Air Canada’s state-of-the-art Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft features 30 International Business Class lie-flat seat suites, 21 Premium Economy and 247 Economy Class seats with upgraded, and personalized in-flight entertainment at every seat throughout the aircraft.

Flight	From	To	Days of Operation	Depart	Arrive
AC037	Vancouver (YVR)	Melbourne (MEL)	Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat	10:45 p.m.	09:45 a.m. +2 days
AC038	Melbourne (MEL)	Vancouver (YVR)	Mon, Wed, Fri, Sun	11:40 a.m.	07:30 a.m.

Air China to connect the Silicon Valley with Shanghai

Air China’s expansion in North America continues with the launch of its thrice-weekly nonstop service between San Jose, California and Shanghai starting on September 1, 2016. The new flight will be operated by Airbus A330-200 aircraft, offering business and economy class cabins.

San Jose will be Air China’s tenth gateway in North America and its first destination with direct connections to Shanghai from the Silicon Valley. The carrier’s other U.S. and Canada gateways offer nonstop services to Beijing from Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Newark, Washington Dulles, Houston, Honolulu, Vancouver and Montreal.

LAN Airlines retires the Airbus A340-300

LAN Airlines (Chile) (Santiago) on Friday, April 17, 2015, operated its last Airbus A340-300 revenue flights. The planned last official flight, flight LA 800, was operated with the pictured Airbus A340-313 CC-CQF (msn 442) from Sydney and Auckland to Santiago, arriving at 12:35 (local time) on Runway 17L at Santiago International Airport. The last planned revenue flight was received with the typical water cannon salute (above) from the airport’s fire and rescue service.

Ironically, a few hours later, sister ship Airbus A340-313 CC-CQC (msn 363) was pressed into replacement revenue service and operated flight LA 642 to Lima, Peru.

It is expected the three remaining Airbus A340-300s will be leaving Chile in the near future.

LAN Airlines (Chile) aircraft slide show:

LAN Airlines to operate the Boeing 787 on the Santiago-Easter Island-Papeete route

LAN Airlines (Chile) (Santiago) will operate the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner on the weekly Santiago-Easter Island-Papeete (Tahiti) route starting on September 21 per Airline Route.

On the financial side, LATAM Airlines Group reported operating income of $267 million for the fourth quarter 2014 and $513 million for 2014. Net income reached $98.3 million in fourth quarter 2014, compared to a net loss of $46.1 million in fourth quarter of 2013. LATAM reported a net loss of $109.8 million for full year 2014, compared to a net loss of $281.1 million in 2013. These results include foreign exchange losses of $130.2 million in 2014 and $482.2 million in 2013 mainly resulting from the devaluation of the Brazilian real. In addition, this result includes the recognition of a $112 million provision during the first quarter of 2014 related to estimated penalties for anticipated aircraft redeliveries as a result of our fleet restructuring process.

Read the full report: CLICK HERE

Copyright Photo: Alvaro Romero/AirlinersGallery.com. Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner CC-BBI (msn 38480) arrives back at the Santiago base.

LAN Airlines (Chile) aircraft slide show:

LAN Airlines to retire the last Airbus A340-300

LAN Airlines (Chile) (Santiago) is getting ready to replace its aging Airbus A340-300s (above) with the new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners (below). The venerable A340s are currently assigned to the long-range Santiago-Auckland-Sydney Southern Hemisphere trans-Pacific route.

The last regularly-scheduled revenue flight is currently scheduled for the morning of April 17 when flight LA 800 arrives from Auckland at 11:35 am (1135) in Santiago. However the A340 may be kept as a reserve aircraft after this last scheduled flight, pending any last minute changes.

The Chilean carrier took delivery of its first stretched Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner (CC-BGA) on February 5.

In other news, LAN Airlines on January 27, 2016 will start to operate a weekly Boeing 787 flight on the Santiago-Caracas-Miami (on Wednesdays) route per Airline Route.

Top Copyright Photo: Alvaro Romero/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A340-313 CC-CQC (msn 363) arrives back at the Santiago (SCL) hub.

LAN Airlines (Chile) aircraft slide show:

Bottom Copyright Photo: Steve Bailey/AirlinersGallery.com. Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner CC-BGB (msn 35318) prepares to depart from Paine Field on a test flight on March 6. It is pending delivery to the carrier.

Chilejet awaits final approvals to start operations

Chilejet S.A. (Chilejet.com) (Santiago) as we previously reported, is a new airline “established in Chile to serve specific niche markets in the air charter and scheduled markets.”

On December 4, 2014 Chilejet announced Santiago and Antofagasta airport stations have been approved by the Chilean Air Aviation Authority – DGAC, in order to start flight operations. The new airline plans to fly from Santiago (SCL) to Calama (CJC) and Antofagasta (ANF).

Copyright Photo: Alvaro Romero. The company took delivery of its first aircraft, ex-America West/US Airways/PAL Airlines Boeing 737-3G7 CC-ADZ (msn 24634), in 2014. The airliner currently sits at Santiago awaiting approval to fly again.

LAN Airlines to lease three Boeing 767-300F freighters to FedEx Express

LAN Airlines (Chile) (Santiago) is leasing three Boeing 767-300F freighters to FedEx Express (Memphis) for three years. LAN currently has excess freighter capacity.

LAN Airlines aircraft slide show: