By Darcy Crowe
PANAMA CITY--Star Alliance is girding for the likely departure
of Brazilian carrier TAM SA, which would leave the marketing and
frequent flyer partnership without a foothold in the key Brazilian
market.
TAM, which recently merged with Chile's Lan Airlines SA to
create Latam Airlines Group SA (LFL, LAN.SN), is expected to leave
Star Alliance after Chilean regulators warned the merger could not
take place if the new airline was part of the global marketing
alliance. Two of Latam's key rivals in the region, AviancaTaca and
Copa, are Star Alliance members.
"Eventually TAM will have to leave Star and from our standpoint,
whenever that date comes, we need to come back and rebuild a
proposition for Brazil," said Mark Schwab, Star Alliance's chief
executive, on the sidelines of an airlines conference in
Panama.
"We are very happy with the rest of our network in Latin
America, but Brazil represents 40% of air travel in the region," he
added.
The group has a limited amount of options for Brazil. Gol Linhas
Aereas Inteligentes (GOL, GOLL4.BR), Brazil's second-biggest
airline by market share, has tied up a deal with Delta Air Lines
Inc. (DAL), which belongs to the SkyTeam group. The newly merged
Latam, meanwhile, has not yet announced what partnership it will
choose but most observers expect it to stay in One World, which has
been the group used by LAN. Enrique Cueto, Latam's chief executive,
said the newly merged airline would make a decision on its
partnership in three to four months.
That essentially leaves as the only candidate Avianca Brazil, a
unit of Synergy Group Corp., which controls Colombia's flagship
carrier AviancaTaca. Avianca Brazil is not part of any
partnerships. Jose Efromovich, the company's chief executive, said
the company did not yet have the technological platforms necessary
to be part of any group.
"We have plenty of service into Brazil, but we'll end up losing
a strong home carrier," Mr. Schwab said. "We need to solve for a
home strong carrier and a competitive network within Brazil."
Write to Darcy Crowe at darcy.crowe@dowjones.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires