Carolinas

Right there ! The keyword is competition. Unfortunately there in no real competition in Chile at the moment (especially for corporate sector). Sky Airlines, Jetsmart ? They are not real contenders. LATAM has the largest network, best time slots, much better international coverage, Easter Island monopoly, etc.. And this is especially important when it come to corporate travels. Therefore at the moment here in Chile we basically have very little choice if you want reliable and balanced connection throughout the country with a possibility to connect overseas. If you're lucky to live in Santiago, then you're more flexible for sure, but it's more difficult for the regions.

Now, speaking about Brazil. Yes, economy of the country isn't in great shape, but come on ! You've got a population of ~200 mil people ! Our ski resorts near Santiago, and the whole Patagonia and Atacama is full of wealthy Brazilians. I don't believe economic factor is only to blame here. I don't know, perhaps TAM had something they put on the table during the negotiations of merging, but Brazilian now are in much more favorable conditions that we are here in Chile and I am not entirely convinced it's all about economy only.

broland

Nope, nothing on the table by TAM. They were struggling financially and very relieved when LAN took an interest in merging. It was like a "please, please, please, let's merge, please" on part of TAM.

PABLOCO

Fully of topic, but the merge with Tam, was the worse Lan business decision ever, Lan is loosing money daily by helping the Brasilian situation. I think it was a better idea just to wait a bit more and just buy Tam.