LATAM celebrates 20 years of trading on the New York Stock Exchange

posted by AJOT | Nov 22 2017 at 10:09 AM | Air Cargo

New York City, USA - LATAM Airlines Group today celebrated 20 years since it began trading its shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The company's Chairman of the Board Ignacio Cueto led proceedings by ringing the NYSE’s closing bell to mark the end of the day’s trading. "We have written history for Latin American aviation and in 20 years’ time, we will be ringing the bell again on Wall Street," said Ignacio Cueto, LATAM’s President of the Board "During the last three years we have gone through the deepest transformation in our history and we are now seeing positive results." "20 years ago we dreamed of being the leading airline in Latin America and today we have achieved it. We went from being a Chile-based carrier with a fleet of around 40 aircraft in 1997 to being a regional operator with a fleet of more than 300 aircraft, domestic operations in six countries and three international hubs that connect Latin America with the world," said Ignacio Cueto, President of the Board of Directors, LATAM Airlines Group.

During the ceremony, the executive talked about the company’s process of adaptation: "During the last three years we have gone through the deepest transformation in our history and we are now seeing positive results. We have been able to reduce our fleet commitments considerably, we have made significant cost reductions and have adjusted the structure of the organization,” said Cueto. To close, Cueto turned to the company's future projections: "We see that the region is recovering and in parallel, our cost savings and the implementation of our new sales model are paying off. We will continue to strengthen our network – this year alone we have launched 13 new routes and in 2018 will inaugurate a further 21 – to improve Latin America’s connectivity, both within the region and with the rest of the world," the executive added. At the closing bell, Cueto was joined by LATAM’s former President of the Board, Mauricio Amaro; Emilio Rodríguez Larraín, President of the Board for LATAM Airlines Peru; Ramiro Alfonsín, CFO of LATAM and Investor Relations Manager, María José Ortiz.