Here's some more news of the proposed merger. Doc originally posted this in Buzz but thought it would helpful here also.
It appears the pilots union is against the merger as they might lose pension benefits and job security. But the government seems to determined to make it happen to help solve Brazil's aviation crisis. The plan is to give TAM all of Varig's assets and none of their liabilities (such as the pension plan). So it would appear that TAM will be the surviving airline. Maybe that means that the AA and GP alliances will survive. That would be good news.
Here's the link to the
news article