An ambassador for Chile abroad and often the first point of contact for visitors to the country, LAN, Chile´s largest airline is truly a national champion.

Since the company was privatized in the late nineteen eighties, Chile´s national carrier LAN has transformed itself a major player in the region´s civil aviation market and one of the most respected brands in the industry. In an overcrowded marketplace where subsidies and self-interested regulation are commonplace, the airline is now trying to make itself a genuinely international player, opening subsidiary airlines in Peru, Ecuador and the Dominican Republic and shortening its name from LanChile to LAN.

But how has LAN managed to be so successful when much of the aviation industry, both in Latin America and the rest of the world, is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy? And can LAN´s story tell us anything else about the way Chileans like to do business?