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LATAM expected to maintain Qantas partnership after leaving oneworld

written by australianaviation.com.au | September 30, 2019

A LATAM Airlines Boeing 787-9 at Sydney Airport. (Seth Jaworski)
A LATAM Airlines Boeing 787-9 at Sydney Airport. (Seth Jaworski)

LATAM Group is expected to maintain its partnership with Qantas on flights between Australia and South America as it withdraws from the oneworld airline marketing alliance and forges a joint-venture with Delta Air Lines.

It was announced on September 26 that Delta Airlines would spend $1.9 billion to acquire a 20 per cent stake in the LATAM group of carriers and seek a JV partnership on North America-South America routes.

As a consequence of the deal, which requires regulatory approval in a number of different markets, LATAM planned to end its membership of oneworld and operate as an unaligned carrier, as well as drop plans to establish an alliance with American Airlines.

LATAM, which is headquartered in Chile and has subsidiaries in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru, has codeshare agreements with the likes of American Airlines, British Airways, Iberia, Qantas and Qatar Airways, who are all in the oneworld alliance.

While LATAM will begin the process of unwinding codeshares with American Airlines, LATAM group chief financial officer Roberto Alvo said the South American carrier’s other tie-ups were likely to remain in place for the forseeable future.

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“We will keep our current bilateral agreements with all the other carriers in oneworld,” LATAM group chief commercial officer and chief executive designate Roberto Alvo told the financial community in a conference call on Friday.

“This affiliation does not effect our bilateral relationships, which we intend to keep.”

American Airlines and LATAM had been working towards a joint-business agreement on routes between North and South America. However, regulators in Chile raised objections to the proposed deal, which left the door open for Delta Airlines to swoop in and try to secure a tie-up.

A file image of LATAM Airlines' first Airbus A320neo at Toulouse, France. (Airbus)
A file image of LATAM Airlines’ first Airbus A320neo at Toulouse, France. (Airbus)

LATAM has two routes in Oceania

Currently, LATAM serves three points in Oceania from Santiago de Chile on two routes.

It operates a nonstop Melbourne-Santiago de Chile service three times a week, as well as daily Sydney-Auckland-Santiago de Chile flights. Both are served with Boeing 787-9 equipment.

However, LATAM announced earlier in 2019 plans to commence three times weekly nonstop Sydney-Santiago de Chile services, which were due to begin on October 27.

The start of those nonstop flight would coincide with a reduction of the current Sydney-Auckland-Santiago de Chile schedule from daily to four times weekly.

Meanwhile, Qantas has between three and four nonstop Sydney-Santiago de Chile flights a week – depending on the time of year – with Boeing 747-400s.

The Australian carrier announced in August it would operate the route daily with 787-9s from June 2020. The equipment change represented about 10,000 more one-ways seats a year.

Qantas and LATAM codeshare on each other’s flights between Australia and Chile.

In addition, Qantas places its QF airline code on LATAM-operated flights from Santiago de Chile to six destinations in South America including São Paulo, Rio De Janeiro and Lima – according to information from the Qantas website – in addition to 110 interline/codeshare destinations throughout South America.

Similarly, LATAM has its LA airline code on Qantas-operated flights from Melbourne and Sydney to a number of Australian domestic ports.

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Comments (6)

  • Phil

    says:

    I am highly doubtful! I reckon Delta will convince LATAM to ditch Qantas for a new alliance with Virgin instead.
    Qantas should use this opportunity to perhaps launch a partnership with Sky Airline which is a Chillean LCC. It would at least maintain their presence in South America.

  • Lucas

    says:

    Final photo states “737-400/400ER”

    Just tidy that up to say 747 not 737.

    Good article though.

    • australianaviation.com.au

      says:

      Hi Lucas, Apologies for the error. The photo caption has been updated. Thank you for reading.

  • Ovtraveller

    says:

    Apologies for adding another variation of my concerns about LATAM departing from the OW alliance. Flew them first in 2010 from Melbourne to Santiago in Y, then in J some five years ago and due to fly them ago in Feb 2020 in J. I simply hope that the previous seamless connectivity to Buenos Aires continues and the Qantas calculator proves to remain valid. I and doubtlessly many others will be seriously peed off if we blow all our QFFs and SCs due to this management re-alignment. Any others caught on the hop by this?

  • Red Cee

    says:

    This news is out of the blue, and will no doubt effect a number of people. However, long term, it may mean that Qantas will commence add on flights to Rio, San Paulo and a number of other South American cities. If they don’t, the demand may never have been there in the first place.

  • Craigy

    says:

    @ Red Cee, as part of Project Sunrise, Qantas has suggested that a destination being considered is direct Rio

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