Moranguinho

I think a short look into safety records shows, that TAM is no safe airline. If you compare the accidents of the last 30 years of TAM with the accidents of Varig or Vasp, than you can see the difference between international standards and a very bad airline. And for this, you also have to think about, that Vasp and Varig were a lot bigger than TAM most of the time.

Also the continuous incidents of TAM are an indicator about the bad safety performance of the airline. Sure, you can see, that it is bad luck, bad there is no bad luck in aviation.

And I know, that LH wanted some minimum safety requirements from asiean and african airlines before starting a partnership. This was confirmed a few weeks ago by LHs CEO in a german magazine. Surely, it is not possible to compare brazilian airlines with these airlines, because the overall standard is high in brazil (with TAM as exception), but it shows LHs focus.

But yes, I think you are right. Money makes the world go round, and I also think, that an entry of TAM into *A is possibly coming the next years, but now not to soon anymore, because this would result in bad press for LH, esp. in yellow press in germany.

But I still hope that VRN will make it, but I doubt, because the process of restructuring is during too long.