Well here’s something that’s been on the boil for some time – since 2010 – the merger of Chill’s LAN Airlines and Brazil TAM Airlines into the LATAM Entity
Brazil’s anti-trust authorities have approved the merger, clearing the last major hurdle to the combined airline
The combined group – LATAM is valued at a high $14.5bn, and last year carried 45 million passengers and 754,777 tonnes of cargo as LAN and TAM.
Both Chile and Brazil have imposed certain restrictions on LATAM – including reductions in services to Lima, Sao Paulo and Santiago and that that the two airlines join a single international body.
And this is where the real fun begins.
LAN is a OneWorld Member, where as TAM is a (recentish) Star Alliance member. And there is still silence on which one they will finally sign up to.
For now, redemptions should continue as normal, but with government regulation pushing them to settle down with partner, I’d personally expect a decision of which alliance they’ll join sooner rather than later….
One of the conditions set by the Chilean authorities for the merger approval was that the LATAM group could not be in the same alliance as Taca/Avianca. As that group is racing towards Star Alliance membership it seems unlikely that LATAM will come up with a way to do anything but move to oneworld.
I hope they stay with OneWorld.
If LAN leaves, my BA Avios points will be even more useless.