LATAM Airlines Group

Merger

Chile's LAN Airlines and Brazil's TAM Airlines signed a non-binding agreement on 13 August 2010, a binding agreement on 19 January 2011, and papers to close the merger on 22 June 2012, with TAM Airlines shareholders agreeing to the takeover by LAN Airlines. Enrique Cueto, former CEO of LAN, is CEO of LATAM; Mauricio Rolim Amaro, formerly vice-chairman of TAM, became LATAM chairman.

Government approvals

The agreement to establish LATAM was approved by Chilean authorities on 21 September 2011, with 11 restrictions. These include transferring four landing slots at São Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport to competitors interested in operating flights to Santiago de Chile's Comodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport; renouncing membership to either the Oneworld or Star Alliance airline alliance; restricting the increase in capacity on flights between Brazil and Chile; and opening code-share possibilities and fidelity program membership to interested competitors. On 14 December 2011, Brazilian authorities approved the agreement, imposing similar restrictions as Chilean authorities: LATAM would have to choose an alliance by August 2012; and frequencies between São Paulo and Santiago de Chile would have to be reduced. At the time TAM had two pairs of slots while LAN had four, LAN had to relinquish two pairs to competitors interested in using them. On 7 March 2013, LATAM announced its final decision to choose Oneworld as its global airline alliance; as a result TAM left Star Alliance during the second quarter of FY2014 to join Oneworld.

Rebranding

In August 2015 it was announced that all LATAM Airline Group airlines would fully rebrand as LATAM, with one unified livery to be applied on all aircraft by 2018. The first of these aircraft were repainted (or delivered new) in a new LATAM livery in April 2016.

LATAM Airlines Group is currently working on the rebranding process, which is expected to be completed by 2019. Changes are becoming 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.

Ownership

The company's shareholder structure as of 31 December 2016 is:

Operations

As of December 2016, LATAM Airlines Group is one of the largest airline groups in the world in terms of network connections, with a fleet of 319 aircraft providing passenger transport services to 133 destinations in 23 countries and 15 aircraft providing cargo services to 149 destinations in 28 countries.

LATAM’s main hubs are Santiago de Chile, Lima, São Paulo (GRU) and Bogotá. The company is exploring the creation of a new hub in northeastern Brazil with the objective of expanding operations between Europe and South America. Bogota was recently announced as the new hub for the Caribbean.

Subsidiary airlines of LATAM Airlines Group

The airlines majority and minority owned by LATAM Airlines Group through the primary airlines' various subsidiaries are as follows:

Current fleet

The LATAM Airlines fleet consists of the following aircraft (as of 31 December 2016):