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| LAN Crew preparing for next flight |
Stung by higher fuel costs, LAN Airlines flew Latin America's first flight on Thursday using a navigational system from takeoff to landing that it says will save time and money and reduce pollution.
LAN said the Required Navigation Performance system by General Electric will cut 19 miles, 6.3 minutes, 67.5 gallons of fuel and 1,420 pounds of carbon emissions from each flight on its popular Cusco-Lima route, which takes tourists from the Inca ruins of Machu Picchu in the treacherous Andes to the capital on the Pacific Coast.
Though components of the technology have been around since the mid-1990s and are used on landings at some airports around the world, GE said Thursday's flight was unusual because the satellite-based technology was used along the entire journey.
