LAW - Latin American Wings (Santiago de Chile) has suspended scheduled flight operations as of Saturday, March 10, blaming a worsening price war in the Chilean aviation market.

The carrier's general director, Andrés Dulcinelli, said in a statement that LAW would use the downtime to restructure the company with the aim of resuming flights under a new business model. The entry of fresh capital is also anticipated although has not yet been confirmed.

"We trust that this reorganization will allow us to reverse the situation in which the company finds itself and we will begin a new stage that will see the implementation of a business model adjusted to market requirements," he said.

LAW had operated five B737-300s on regular passenger flights covering the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Haiti, Peru, and Ecuador. Flights to the United States were to have gone ahead this year after the US Department of Transportation (DOT) last week granted it a foreign air carrier's permit.

According to DOT records, approximately 91% of LAW’s reported shares are held by Chilean citizens, with the remaining 9% of its shares collectively held by German and Belgian citizens.