Ladeco Ladeco Ladeco was a Chilean airline; Ladeco is the acronym of "Línea Aérea Del Cobre" or the "Airline of Copper," in reference to the principal Chilean export. Ladeco began operations in 1958 flying mostly internal routes between Chile's major cities and some international routes, and continued to run services until 1994 when LanChile (currently called Latam Chile) bought over 99% of the shares and merged Ladeco into its fleet. At the time of takeover, Ladeco was equipped mainly with Boeing 737 aircraft as well as some Boeing 727s and Boeing 757s. Ladeco then became exclusively an internal carrier between Chilean
Iberia (airline) company, this operation was approved by the Chilean antitrust prosecution, and then began a merger process in which Iberia losses some rights acquired during its time as shareholder of Ladeco. In 1997 Iberia sold its shares in Ladeco after had made a $22 million investment. In 1996, the airline launched its website. The company ordered 76 aircraft from Airbus in February 1998, which at the time was the largest single Airbus order. The following year it bought Aviaco and inherited that airline's fleet. By the end of the 90's Iberia owned as majority shareholder the Spanish airlines Aviaco, Viva Air,