LAN Airline Terminates Santiago-Toronto Flights Route

One of Chile’s leading vessels, LAN Airlines, has decided to suspend its non-stop flights linking Santiago and Toronto starting from early April. A number of reasons have been spotted out for this development, however, rising Crude Oil prices have been detected as the foremost reason. This was confirmed by the company’s spokesperson on Friday. The company had decided to raise the fares from 8%- 12% for its international routes last month as a sequel to rising Oil prices which are currently trading at around $100/ barrel.

Flights to Santiago with LAN airline are counted among the popular routes and also its connection with Toronto flights is among the limited options available to travellers seeking flights from one end of the US to the other.

Apart from the above, rising turmoil and uncertainty in different parts of the world including the Middle East, North Africa and US intervention along with the allied forces in Libya, have led to the hike in Oil prices. According to the daily newspaper, El Mercurio, LAN considers the current rise in prices as an important consideration.

Furthermore, the Chilean Airline substantiated that considering the importance of its Canadian clients; it would continue flights to Toronto through its affiliated airlines including one world alliance airlines, connecting in New York, Miami, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The one world airline alliance includes LAN, British Airways, and a unit of International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (IAG.LN, IAG.MC), AMR Corp.’s (AMR) American Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. (0293.HK) and Qantas Airways Ltd. (QAN.AU).

Another reason affecting LAN’s decision to suspend its non-stop flights between Santiago and Toronto is the shortage of long-range air vessels, as mentioned by El Mercurio. The company spokeswoman, however, remained silent on this issue. LAN is on its way to merging with Brazilian TAM SA (TAM, TAMM4.BR), however, the recent review of the merger by the Chilean antitrust court, is likely to stretch the creation of Latin America’s largest airline until at least the fourth quarter.