Sebastián Escarrer, Chief Executive Officer of the Spanish hotel management company Sol Meliá, and Enrique Cueto, Executive Vice President of the Chilean airline LanChile, have joined forces in a strategic sales alliance designed to improve their business performance and promote co-operation on future projects.

The alliance allows both companies preferred access to the products and services supplied by each, providing their customers and employees with a series of special benefits. For example, members of LanChile’s Frequent Traveller Programme will be able to earn “kilometres” in their accounts every time they stay in one of Sol Meliá‘s 245 hotels world-wide.

The alliance between Sol Meliá and LanChile also involves the joint development of numerous sales and promotional activities as well as the penetration of new markets, all of which will be planned and monitored by a specially created joint committee.

According to Enrique Cueto, “LanChile is very pleased to have formed an alliance with Sol Meliá, given that their dedication to quality service, their global presence and the excellent quality of their products will provide a greater impulse to the achievement of our shared objectives”.

Sebastián Escarrer emphasised that “Latin America is a market in which Sol Meliá has been extremely active and in which we have achieved considerable growth, which means that our partnership with LanChile can only be beneficial for the customers of both of our companies”.

The Chilean national airline has been the fastest growing airline in the world in the last three years. In 1996, the company flew more than 2 million passengers to leading destinations in South America and Europe.

Sol Meliá is the leading Spanish-speaking hotel company in Latin America and currently offers 245 hotels in 25 countries on 4 continents. In the first quarter of 1998, the Company achieved a net profit of 1,475 million pesetas, an increase of 21.6% on the same period in 1997.

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