lan chile

[Pelican 10]

hey guys, anyone have any info on Lan Chile, I know they fly out of MIA and ORD but some little bird told me they were hiring U.S pilots and basing them out of the U.S. as well ??.......anyone ....anyone??

 

[Dave Benjamin]

Have you checked pprune.org ?

Generally it's a better place to find info on foreign carriers. Chile is a beautiful country. Good luck with the job hunt.

 

[bafanguy]

My wife ran across an ex-USAir guy in the hotel bar in Santiago who was flying for Lan Chile. pprune is, in fact, a good spot for this kind of info.

 

[free.bird]

The owners of LanChile partially own a us cargo airline called Florida West.

FloridaWest flys new 767-300's with a LanChile Cargo paint job. All of the pilots are hired from the US (as it is a us certified/licensed airline) and based in Miami (with routes inside the US and down to Latin America)

The is a US certified carrier that does ACMI? work for LanChiles cargo operations.

 

[boomlrd]

I fly LAN Chile to Santiago monthly, its one of the best airlines I have ever flown on, free drinks in coach too!!!

 

[platinumclub]

They have also branched I believe to LanPeru and LanArg? Beautiful flight attendants...Do you speak espanol?

 

[Corn Julio]

Lan Chile is part of LAN Group which covers Lan Chile, Lan Peru, Lan Ecuador, Lan Argentina and Lan Dominicana. All pilots are hired and trained by Lan Chile but the vast majority are residents or nationals of thier repective countries. Lan is a FAR 129 airline ,(foreign air carrier), which requires an ICAO ticket from the respective country. Not very hard to get. Just a whole bunch of burocratic paperwork and a serious medical exam that lasts about 2 days.
Like Free bird says; LAN owns Florida West Airlines in Miami FL. They are a FAR 121 carrier and hire pilots with FAA licenses.
Lan is by far the best airline in South America.
Hope it helps.

 

[fly22]

DO they give prefrence hiring to bilingual pilots?

 

[Pelican 10]

TKS for all the info guys, I'll give them a try and let you 'all know what the scoop is. I'm fluent in spanish so maybe that could help an inch !

I know that Lan group is currently buying most of the S.American routes and doing one hell of a job.

 

[CSY Mon]

I work with a Chilean guy, a B-767 capt, that is furloughed from Lan Chile..Or so he says.

Don't think they need to hire foreigners if they are cutting back,

Florida West on the other hand are hireing occasionally...Tried to get on there a while ago, but they did not wan't furloughed guys.
The new chief pilot however is ex USAirways, he may be hireing some of his buddies...?

 

[Pelican 10]

Lan Chile hasn't furlougued anyone in years......as a matter of fact they have not stopped hiring since 1997 after they decided to join forces with Aeroperu and SAM.

I'll be in Santiago next week for a good while, maybe I can find out If indeed they are still hiring crews and If foreigners are welcome.

 

[free.bird]

I lived in Santiago Chile in 02/03 and had a few friends who flew for LanChile. Nice airline, however the pay is somewhat low when compared with US carries (although the cost of living is less, it's not that cheap to live well in Chile). FO's earn around $1500-2000 USD and Captains make no more than $4,000-$6000.
They work many more days per month then most US pilots (my buddy on A320 works about 20 days per month). Plus they do not bid their schedules like in the US. They are assigned a schedule for the month. Plus they only get ONE roundtrip LanChile pass per year (for familiy memebers as well) to use which must be requested weeks in advance.

Basically the airline is run with a strict management stlye towards the fligth crews. And with all of their alliance airlines it makes it hard for the pilot groups to gain unity for Union type purposes.....



I'd think you'd be better off working for a US cargo carrier out of MIA that has two weeks on/then two weeks off schedule and then jumpseat to live in Chile on your days off.

Best of luck and keep us posted on your findings!

free.bird