MarkXS

I'm LOLing at the "We are Uruguayan" bit in the video. Did they just buy the dregs of Pluna? (No, of course, just joking.) Sure, LAN and TAM fly here, but there's sadly no "LAN Uruguay".

sbm12

She is the TAM CEO, Claudia Sender.
Probably not you, but they did ask a bunch of other people. And the gist of the findings was that Spanish-speakers preferred LAN and the Brazilians preferred TAM. Not too surprising given the heritage of the two airlines. They split the difference and chose neither. So everyone will be unhappy and eventually learn to deal with the fact that "their" favorite didn't win.

I'm paraphrasing, but that's he gist of what they said this morning.

sdsearch

Ok, next naming question:

Some of the regional versions of LAN have their own names (especially for intra-country routes), for example LAN Argentina. Will those change to, for example LATAM Argentina?

sbm12

Just the one brand name. No more regional qualifiers.

JohnnyColombia

Thanks, she could probably earn decent money as a celebrity lookalike if the airline thing doesn't work out.

I think given the comments above about wondering why LATAM is starting afresh with a new brand rather than picking the strongest. This is the only reasonable conclusion that one could reach. That it's about politics, juggling national pride and ensuring that everyone is as equally miserable with the decision.

sdsearch

So will they all get the same "LA" IATA two-letter code at the same time? Right now, the regional versions have not just different names, but different two-letter IATA codes: "LA" is LAN Chile, but LAN Peru is "LP", and LAN Argentina is "4M", and LAN Ecuador is "XL".

I don't see how they could all adopt the same name yet keep different IATA two-letter codes. My understanding was that there's a one-to-one correspondence between those.

And, btw, is there is a timeline for these renamings?

snufkin

What about LAT as in Latin and AM as in America?

JohnnyColombia

My understanding is that all flights on non Chile LANs have two flight numbers so already use the LA IATA code. I just did a random Google of LP2384 and it is a flight from Lima to Iquitos. Google LA2384 and it is the exact same flight.

The designation for LAN Colombia is 4C, which you did not mention in your list above probably because it is never used. I have only seen LAN Colombia flights with the LA prefix. But some random Googling shows they are both Valid, LA3060 and 4C3060 both bring up the same flight from Cali to Bogotá

Edit: I just had a look and all LAN flight numbers are 3 digits, LAN Ecuador 1XXX, LAN Peru 2XXX, LAN Colombia 3XXX and LAN Argentina 4XXX

So looks like the plan for flight numbers between LANs to not overlap is quite longstanding

MfromL

According to Tam's CEO the change to the new livery will take up to 4 years because they will paint the planes according to their maintenance schedule. Also it seems that LP might get its first 3 787s with the new livery (source, scroll down a little bit).

sbm12

AFAIK, no. They'll all be LATAM, operated by <> but marketed to consumers as LATAM. The operating carrier details must remain independent. They could all end up codeshared by the others so that the flight numbers can be consistent and they can all use a common IATA designator for the flight numbers, but I do not know if that's worked out yet.

Codeshares should do it, I think.

Painting the planes will take 3+ years. They're only going to do it at maintenance windows for the existing fleet. New deliveries will eventually be received with the new livery but even that is a year or so out.

Because "strongest" varies based on who you're talking to. There is no single, objective answer to that question.

postular

Yes --- Like "PAN AM". I believe that was the idea.

bingocallerb22

Well, it sure is taking them a long time, and still more time to come! I recall hearing some execs suggesting it was a bigger job (integrating the two) than anticipated. I suspect that this also it has been interferring with them concentrating on solving some of the long standing existing problems. IMHO service by LAN has been going down a bit recently. And no hint on when to integrate the loyalty programs. I wish they would just get it over with and start doing a better job for their clients rather than making the corporation grow - but I guesss corporations survive because they grow.

Eastbay1K

Without any specific personal inside information, I think TAM was closer to financial implosion and needed more invasive surgery than LAN anticipated (coupled with the BRL falling by 50% v. US$ post-merger).

Sant

When I read this post, I got concerned my flight numbers may have changed from XL#### to LA1#### similar to US#### to AA####.

JohnnyColombia

There are plenty of metrics to measure brand strength, it's not a matter of opinion. There is readily an objective answer to the strongest brand question. The problem is there is no subjective answer and an objective answer does not take into consideration national sensibilities or the egos of CEOs which surely must have come into play here.

Regardless of which was the stronger of the two brands, it has been thrown away and both brands were stronger than LATAM as that was only launched as an airline brand yesterday and as such has zero recognition. According to this 2014 chart of Latin American brands, LAN was the 18th most valuable brand in Latin America worth 3 billion dollars. TAM does not make the list so there's the answer.

It's a baffling decision whatever the reason and there is little point us trying to figure out LANlandia and its actions. Would I presonally throw away a 3 billion dollar brand? Probably not if I were sober.