LATAM (airline)

LATAM
Sociedad Anónima
Traded as BCS: LAN
BM&F Bovespa: LATM11
NYSE: LFL
Industry Aviation
Founded 2015
Headquarters Santiago, Chile
Key people
 Mauricio Rolim Amaro, (Chairman)
Enrique Cueto, (CEO)
Products Passenger flights LAN Airlines, TAM Airlines, etc.
Cargo activity
Aircraft maintenance
Services Airline Services
Subsidiaries
Website www.latam.com

LATAM is the new brand resulting from the joining of two South American airlines, LAN, TAM and their respective subsidiaries. With its head office in Santiago Chile, the airline operates passenger flights out of South America, Central America, North America and the Caribbean, Europe and Oceania with a total of 135 destinations in 23 countries.[1] Its cargo business provides freight services to over 144 destinations in 26 countries. Regarding traffic and coverage, it’s the largest airline in South America.[2]

The new brand was announced on 6 August 2015 and was the result of an important merger and subsequent process integration and validation, flight connection optimization, restructuring and fleet modernization.[3]

LATAM employs a staff of approximately 53 thousand and owns a fleet of 312, not including ordered and as yet undelivered planes.

History

First LAN flights.
TAM Founders.

LAN was founded on 5 March 1929 as Linea Aerea Nacional, a state run airline that soon became LAN Chile. After the opening of certain markets (which led to the creation of LAN Peru, LAN Argentina, and LAN Ecuador), the company changed name again becoming LAN Airlines in 2005. In 2011, LAN acquired the Colombian airline Aires which later became LAN Colombia.

TAM was founded on 21 February 1961 by five charter pilots who joined to create their own company. Originally registered under the name "Transportes Aéreos Marília S.A.", so named for Marilia in São Paulo, today its initials mean "Transportes Aéreos Meridionáis".

LATAM Airlines Group was officially launched on 13 August 2010 when both companies publicly announced they had signed a memorandum of understanding and notified that its creation had been approved by the corresponding authorities in both countries. Each company kept their operations separate at their respective headquarters in Santiago and São Paulo and the association was finally completed on 22 June 2012.

In 2014 both companies together became the first airline group in America to enter the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.[4]

New brand

On 6 August 2015, the LATAM Airlines Group announced they would adopt a unique single identity: LATAM. The brand brought together all the airfreight carrier and passenger airlines in the group: LAN Airlines and its subsidiaries in Peru, Argentina, Colombia and Ecuador; TAM Linhas Aereas S.A., TAM Transportes Aereos Del Mercosur S.A., (TAM Airlines Paraguay); and the airfreight carriers in the LATAM Group, LAN CARGO, LAN CARGO Colombia, ABSA (TAM Cargo) and Mas Air.8

The process behind the name went through various stages in which several possible brand scenarios were assessed. The study was carried out with support from Interbrand covering 10 countries, 5 of them home to LATAM Airlines Group domestic passenger operations, and other long distance destinations in which it also had significant scope.


LATAM Airlines Group is currently working on modifying its corporate image, a process that will take approximately 3 years with notable changes starting in 2016; said changes will become gradually more evident in physical spaces, on planes, at business offices, airport service counters, web sites, uniforms among others.

Some changes are already in place, mainly in passenger travel experiences, such as the new cabin interiors which have been incorporated into the fleet, new VIP lounges in São Paulo and Santiago currently open to the public and forming part of the largest network of frequent flyer lounges in the region, and digital platforms such as the onboard entertainment system for mobile devices.[5] All the brands associated with the Group will be unified under one name in an effort to offer one service in accordance with the new brand.

Subsidiaries

The following are LATAM’s subsidiaries:

Destinations

The airline will operate passenger flights to countries in South America, Central America, North America and the Caribbean, Europe, Asia, Oceania and Africa:

 Argentina Bahía Blanca, Bariloche, Buenos Aires, Comodoro Rivadavia, Córdoba, El Calafate, Mendoza, Neuquén, Puerto Iguazú, Río Gallegos, Rosario, Salta, San Juan, Tucumán, Ushuaia
 Aruba Oranjestad
 Australia Sydney
 Bolivia La Paz, Santa Cruz de la Sierra
 Brazil Aracaju, Belém, Belo Horizonte, Boa Vista, Brasília, Caldas Novas, Campinas, Campo Grande, Cuiabá, Curitiba, Florianópolis, Fortaleza, Foz do Iguaçu, Goiânia, Ilhéus, Imperatriz, João Pessoa, Joinville, Londrina, Macapá, Maceió, Manaus, Marabá, Natal, Navegantes, Palmas, Porto Alegre, Porto Seguro, Porto Velho, Recife, Ribeirão Preto, Rio Branco, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Santarém, São José do Rio Preto, São Luís, São Paulo, Teresina, Uberlândia, Una, Vitória
 Canada Toronto
 Chile Antofagasta, Arica, Balmaceda, Calama, Chiloé, Concepción, Copiapó, Easter Island, Iquique, La Serena, Osorno, Puerto Montt, Punta Arenas, Santiago, Temuco, Valdivia
 Colombia Barranquilla, Bogotá, Bucaramanga, Cali, Cartagena, Cúcuta, Ibagué, Leticia, Medellín, Montería, Neiva, Pereira, Puerto Asís, Quibdó, San Andrés Island, Santa Marta, Valledupar, Villavicencio, Yopal
 Cuba Havana
 Dominican Republic Punta Cana
 Ecuador Baltra, Cuenca, Guayaquil, Quito, San Cristóbal
 France Paris
 French Polynesia Papeete
 Germany Frankfurt
 Italy Milan
 Mexico Cancún, Mexico City
 New Zealand Auckland
 Paraguay Asunción, Ciudad del Este
 Peru Arequipa, Ayacucho, Cajamarca, Chiclayo, Cuzco, Iquitos, Juliaca, Lima, Piura, Pucallpa, Puerto Maldonado, Tacna, Talara, Tarapoto, Trujillo, Tumbes
 South Africa Johannesburg (starting in 2016)
 Spain Barcelona, Madrid
 United Kingdom London
 United States Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Orlando, Washington D.C. (starting in 2016)
 Uruguay Montevideo, Punta del Este
 Venezuela Caracas

Hubs

LATAM’s main hubs are Santiago, Lima, São Paulo (GRU) and Bogota. The company is currently looking into a new hub in the northeast of Brazil with the objective of expanding operations between Europe and South America.[6] Bogota was recently announced as the new hub for the Caribbean.[7]

Fleet

LAN TAM LATAM
Airbus A319 25 27 52
Airbus A320 72 83 155
Airbus A321 5 23 28
Airbus A330 0 9 9
Airbus A350 0 1 1
Boeing B767 24 14 38
Boeing B777 0 10 10
Boeing B787-8 10 0 10
Boeing B787-9 3 0 3
TOTAL 145 167 312

VIP lounges

VIP Lounge in Guarulhos Airport, Sao Paulo, BR.

LATAM has 4 VIP lounges in some of the region’s main airports; at the Arturo Merino Benitez Airport in Santiago Chile, Guarulhos in São Paulo Brazil, Ezeiza in Buenos Aires Argentina and at the El Dorado Airport in Bogota Colombia. The most recent are the Santiago and São Paulo lounges.

A special feature of the new VIP lounges are the new colors and materials used in representation of Latin America and the colors representing the location of each airport. The objective is to highlight and recover some of the areas more salient cultural and folkloric aspects within the context of the Latin American continent.[8]

Design was created in part by Putnam Studio in Paris and where its namesake, Olivia Putnam, commented on the new VIP lounges: "I feel attracted to places with a strong sense of identity making them special and unique. More and more people feel a certain fear of the new international flavor that has no link to the location they're in. That's why we tried to optimize South America's wonderful diversity by choosing locally grown natural materials."[9]

References

  1. ↑ Brady, Paul (7 August 2015). "LAN and TAM will team up to create a new super-carrier called LATAM". Conde Nast Traveller. Retrieved 31 August 2015.
  2. ↑ Guimaraes, Ligia (August 13, 2010). "LAN e TAM formam maior aérea da América do Sul, dizem empresas". O Globo G1 - Portuguese. Retrieved 31 August 2015.
  3. ↑ Nomiyama, Chizu (6 August 2015). "LATAM Airlines merges Chile's LAN, Brazil's TAM into one brand". Reuters. Retrieved 31 August 2015.
  4. ↑ "LATAM AIRLINES GROUP BECOMES FIRST AIRLINE GROUP IN THE AMERICAS TO JOIN THE DOW JONES GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY INDEX". Incargo News. Incargonews.com. 25 September 2014. Retrieved 31 August 2015.
  5. ↑ Mutzabaugh, Ben (7 August 2015). "So long, LAN and TAM; Airlines will soon fly under LATAM brand". USA Today Online. Retrieved 31 August 2015.
  6. ↑ "LATAM Airlines Group has to undergo a delicate balance of short term pain for strategic gain". http://www.centreforaviation.com/. Centre for Aviation. Retrieved 4 September 2015. External link in |website= (help)
  7. ↑ Bohorquez Aya, Edwin (7 July 2015). "América Latina le habla duro a". El Espectador (Spanish). Retrieved 5 August 2015.
  8. ↑ Allett, Tom. "LATAM Group opens largest VIP Lounge in South America". Airports International .Com. Key Publishing Limited. Retrieved 31 August 2015.
  9. ↑ Clark, Jonny (30 November 2013). "An Interview With Olivia Putman, Designer Of The New LAN/TAM Lounges". The Design Air. Retrieved 31 August 2015.

External links

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