LAN looks for growth with Boeing 787 on Sydney-Santiago flights
By David Flynn, February 24 2015
South American airline and Qantas partner LAN is gearing up for growth on its Sydney-Santiago route, driven in part by next month's launch of a Boeing 787-8 on the 16 hour flight.
Although LAN has not set a date for the upgrade from its ageing and fuel-guzzling Airbus A340 to the advanced Boeing 787, the airline's booking system currently shows Saturday April 18 as the Dreamliner's debut.
The Boeing 787's passenger-friendly features include a lower cabin altitude and higher humidity to help defeat tiredness and jetlag.
LAN also expects to see a bump in trans-Tasman bookings, as the Sydney-Santiago flight makes a brief stop at Auckland in both directions, with tickets available through LAN as well as Oneworld chum and codeshare partner Qantas.
The Boeing 787 will feature LAN's second generation of lie-flat business class seats, with an all-new design shared on its forthcoming Airbus A350s, although the Dreamliner will have only 30 business class seats compared to 42 on the current A340.
The larger Boeing 787-9 will take over the route "in late Q3 or early Q4" says Johanna Raeder, LATAM's Asia-Pacific Marketing and Communications Manager, but will have the same-size business class cabin.
A recent deal to double the number of airline seats flown between Australia and Chile will also allow both LAN and Qantas to boost services between the two countries, as well as letting Qantas expand its codeshare with LATAM to include more destinations across South America via Santiago.
Qantas this month added a fourth weekly non-stop Boeing 747 service from Sydney to Santiago, while LAN is evaluating an additional three flights each week on top of its daily roster.
LATAM comms exec Raeder also tells Australian Business Traveller that the separate loyalty schemes of Chile's LAN and Brazil's TAM – respectively LANPASS and Fidelidade – "will probably merge in the future, but there is no set timetable for that."
Inside LAN's Boeing 787
LAN and TAM will use the same seats and cabin across their Airbus A350 and Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner fleets.
Together, LAN and TAM have ten Boeing 787-9s and 27 Airbus A350-900s on order, with both due to arrive this year.
The airline boasts the cabin as letting travellers "experience the vibrancy and warmth of the region the moment they step on board."
Arranged in a front-facing 2-2-2 layout, the Airbus A350 and Boeing 787-9 business class seats convert to fully lie-flat beds.
LATAM's designs come from highly-regarded consulting firm Priestmangoode, which says the palette of natural tones was inspired by South America’s warm colours and textures.
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David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
18 Jan 2012
Total posts 12
Couldn't help but notice David, but is there no Personal IFE in Y on the LAN 787? Or are LAN going for Wifi Streaming like some of the QF332?
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
20 May 2013
Total posts 17
All of LAN's 787 have personal IFE is both cabins. =)
https://www.jaunted.com/travel-photos/full/475/LAN's+First+Boeing+787+Dreamliner%3A+Economy+Class
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
19 Nov 2011
Total posts 243
Looks like good try on the short SYD - AKL hop on their J class.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
19 Nov 2011
Total posts 243
Also didn't know that this aircraft can fly 16 hours non-stop
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
17 Aug 2012
Total posts 2204
It doesn't? It runs SYD-AKL-SCL.
12 Jun 2013
Total posts 735
I thought that operating twinjets on this route was still forbidden by ETOPS regulations, but apparently they've recently changed the rules to allow arbitrarily long diversion times for specific city pairs.
(Geez, I'd hate to be halfway along the route when one engine goes out though...)
Anyway, hopefully this will lower fares on the always-ridiculously-priced Australia to South America routes.
NZ Elite
03 Jul 2014
Total posts 109
Along with some more competition with Air NZ operating AKL-EZE (and hopefully at an appropriate time to allow for SYD/MEL/BNE connections).
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
02 Nov 2014
Total posts 23
The SCL - SYD great circle route goes south of NZ, takes 16 hours and mandates four engined aircraft. The SCL - AKL route is further north and two engined aircraft are allowed under ETOPS rules. The flight time SCL - ALK (west going) is just under 13 hours, well within the capabilities of a 787. The article is misleading.
Following relaxation of ETOPS rules for the latest generation aircraft there are not many mandatory four engine routes left. SYD - SCL and SYD - JNB are the only ones that I know of. Both these routes skim Antarctica.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
10 Jan 2013
Total posts 698
Cabin colours are nice, although having been spoilt by all direct aisle access J, I'm finding it hard to favour long haul J (where people will be in flatbed mode) that has congested aisle access. Still, more than suitable enough for NZ leg.
05 May 2012
Total posts 32
Here's hoping the on-time performance improves and LAN don't bring a 7-late-7 stigma to the service that has so plagued the A340 offering.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
06 Feb 2014
Total posts 8
Looks fantastic. 2-2-2 setup is a minor negative but considering this is not a major business route (leisure travellers mainly) it seems pretty good, especially being on a Dreamliner. QF is still 2-2-2 for most J routes anyway (until the new setup gets implemented, and this will exclude A380).
Qantas
07 Jun 2015
Total posts 6
Hi there, we are booked on a LAN flight from Auckland to Santiago on a 787-8 Drealiner. We have business class seats. My question is, which are the best business class seats to select on this aircraft? Thank you for your help.
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