Delta / LATAM Partnership (Consolidated Thread)
 

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/26/delt...t-airline.html

Didn’t see this coming...

Wow...!

LATAM leaving Oneworld
Delta dropping Gol

Well this is a huge surprise. And Delta must have sent jaws dropping in Dallas. AA must have been blindsided by this, given they were working on a JV. No doubt that is DOA.

And this is a stunner too:

this is ... fairly seismic.

I thought this was spam at first. So much was said in that article, I'm not sure which is more surprising right now.

Between the new jets, LATAM leaving OW, dropping GOL, the purchase. How were they able to keep all of this under wraps???

As someone traveling to Latin America often and having to rely on AA poor operations, these are great news.

What a total power move — make OneWorld irrelevant in South America, even worse than it was in China before China Southern left SkyTeam. And Delta shows Gol the door with hardly a thought. The suits in Brazil have to be in panic mode as well. Presumably we'll see a DL-LATAM JV in the short-term, and possibly a great deal more flights from DL hubs to South America. This is just jaw-dropping.

I feel sorry for GOL. They were a nice little airline IMLE = in my limited experience.

Plus, I have the vague impression that LATAM is pretty messed up.

Can we assume that AR is still a SkyTeam partner?

As a DL FF who is based in Lima, this is very exciting for my travel in the region. Hooray!

Delta doesn't have the power to kick an airline out of SkyTeam, so AR is still in. But I've heard lots of how much of a mess AR is, so no guarantees there.

From reading about this deal, it does a lot to fix the LATAM mess. Cleans up their balance sheet, removes some of the planes they were committed to, but didn't need and couldn't afford. And, of course, all the sudden they'll get access to all of the staff/expertise Delta has to remake their operation.

This new AJC article talks about Delta beefing up Ops at LATAM's hubs and specifically talks about beefing up Ops at Miami?!

But the article also mentions that the AA LATAM JV was struck down in Chile and that in order to get a DL JV they'd need to get rid of GOL.

I wonder what Delta's plans are for the 14 new A359s? They already deferred 10 deliveries to 2025, so are these going to go to existing routes or new ones in the works?

Presumably some of them will allow Delta to launch new routes between its hubs and LATAM hubs in S. America. Delta's still relatively weak in South America, but this should allow several new routes to be launched every year for several years. It really makes Delta a player in South America in a way it has never been before.

Edit: Ed Bastian pretty much guarantees this in the AJC article: https://www.ajc.com/business/delta-s...3DH7mu2Nf4rSO/

Very true. I could see them moving some of the smaller wide-bodies to the SA routes and use the new A359s on the prestige TATL routes.