MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Lan Chile Q2 profits soar 158% over a year ago

Lan Chile Sebastián Piñera

Chilean airline LAN has exceeded all expectations with a 158.9% rise in second-quarter net profits, as compared with the same period last year.

The company earned influential stakeholder Sebastián Piñera and his personal friend, LAN director Juan José Cueto, 42.6 million US dollars in just three months. LAN's first semester profits soared by 37.7 million – surging from 96.1 million in the first half of 2006 to 128.7 million the first semester of this year. Still, LAN's passenger yields â€" the amount of revenue airlines collect for every mile a passenger travels â€" fell 8.5% in the quarter. The carrier said the yield decline was "mainly due to fare decreases on regional routes, as well as on domestic routes related with LAN's new business model for short-haul operations". LAN's financial success comes after Piñera – LAN stakeholder, former senator from the center-right National Renovation (RN) and expected presidential candidate in 2010 – wrote a 700,000 US dollars check to pay the fine leveled against him by Chile's Security Regulators (SVS). The fine was based on charges of insider trading of his stocks in the LAN Airlines company. Piñera bought 12 million US dollars in LAN stock in July 2006, just one day before the company released its quarterly earnings report. Once that report went public, the value of LAN stocks jumped by some 6% in a matter of days. LAN Director Cueto was also charged and fined for a similar transaction occurring at the same time but he has decided to appeal his fine of 58,000 US dollars. By Anne Pallisgaard The Santiago Times