
On July 1 2010, LAN Airlines launched a new flight between San Francisco (SFO) and Lima (LIM), Peru. This 4 x a week service means that SFO offers nonstop flights to four continents. LAN’s newest connection has been exciting news for Northern California travelers, who until now needed to transit via Los Angeles to avoid Miami’s overcrowded airport for flights to South America.
After its foundation in Santiago, Chile in 1929, LAN was known as LanChile, the country’s flag carrier. In 2004 the carrier re-branded its image and brought domestic subsidiaries in Argentina, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Ecuador under the LAN name to form South America’s largest airline network. Since then, LAN has grown into a world class carrier with membership in the One World Alliance.
Flight 2609 from SFO flies on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and is operated with a two class 767-300ER aircraft, one of 28 in LAN’s long haul fleet. The efficient ground staff at SFO ensures an on time departure from the G gates in San Francisco’s airy international terminal.
Once onboard, economy class passengers enjoy a spacious 2 – 3 – 2 seat configuration (2 – 4 – 2 is a more common configuration on the 767) with a generous 32 inch seat pitch. Business class seats are spaced 53 inches apart in a 2 – 2 – 2 configuration.
All seats are outfitted with electrical chargers for laptops and iPods, along with a touch screen personal television (PTV). Movies, travel programs, music CD’s and useful guides to LAN destinations can be paused, fast forwarded or re-winded. Earphones are ergonomically designed and were comfortable even after several hours of use.

The team of ten LAN in-flight cabin crew began the drinks service soon after take-off, followed by a full meal served with a special selection of Chilean wine. The crew was friendly and professional, and was more than happy to serve as many drinks as you wished. Families traveling with children will be pleased to know LAN distributes toys and games before take-off to help reduce boredom on the long flight, which lasts almost nine hours.
Flight 2609 arrives just before midnight into Lima, where onward connections to Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, Santiago and Rio De Janeiro are made via a short walk through the modern terminal. Passenger re-screening is efficient and smooth, and even flights with connection times of 45 minutes are a breeze. After passing through the security line, I immediately boarded my flight to Buenos Aires on another 767-300ER that touched down at Ministro Pistarini airport just before dawn. I had been traveling for just over fourteen hours, almost three hours less than had I traveled through the East coast.
After a week in the Argentine capital, I made my way back to Buenos Aires’ international airport and once again found the check-in staff courteous and efficient, and was informed the flight was on time. Fifteen hours later and another brief transit via Lima, my plane landed just after sunrise at San Francisco, extremely impressed with the service and efficiency of LAN, and eager to try their service again.
Note: Miles flown with LAN can be accrued with American, Iberia, Qantas, and British Airways frequent flyer members. In 2008, LAN was voted by passengers as the best airline in South America.
Future expansion plans for the carrier include Paris, France, which LAN will serve from September 2010 with an Airbus 340 aircraft as an extension to its existing Santiago - Madrid service.
For bookings, visit www.lan.com
