It is not AR's decision. The decision comes from Delta. Apparently Dalta is investing $10Million with Gol. Unlike oneworld where Cathay can firmly object Hainan's application. In SkyTeam if AF or DL want someone to join in, other airlines have not much say.

I wasn't talking about Gol or Brazil.

I meant that if LATAM went with SkyTeam (as someone suggested as one possibility in a previous post in this thread), then it would mean that both "major" intra-Argentina arilines (LAN Argentina and AR) would both be in SkyTeam.

And I thus wondered why Argentina wouldn't mind two major Argentian airlines in the same alliance (SkyTeam), if other countries around them won't let LATAM and another airline both be in Star Alliance.

IOTW, my point is that SkyTeam doesn't seem like any better legal alternative to OneWorld than Star Alliance, because OneWorld is the only one of the three alliances that doesn't present LATAM with another major airline in the same alliance in any of their base countries.

Living in hope....
 

.....that the recent announcement that all LAN affiliates (inc LAN Chile) that fly to JFK are going to move into Terminal 8 for more seamless connections with AA is an indication that the airline intends staying in OW.

Elsewhere (in some other FT thread) I've recently seen it estimated that it may be now several years before TAM is really integrated, and that it may take about that long for TAM to change alliances (assuming it's going to), and thus it could some time (measured in years) when LAN will be in OW yet co-owned TAM will be in *A.

So, yes, the good news is that LAN is staying in OW for quite some time to come. The bad news is that the final verdict may now be years off, and that may be too long to consider in terminal moves. :) So while the terminal move does seem to say LAN will certaily stay in OW for the next few years, I don't know if it signals anything far past that. (Of course, AA itself could possibly change radically far before then!)

i can't really understand why there must always be lingering doubts when something happens that relates with OW. When the LAN-TAM agreement surfaced a lot of voices convincingly said that LAN would have switched to *, while it was always clear that LAN was in the driving seat and has deep commitments to the alliance. Also i remember the AA-JAL saga, where for months all we read was the drivel and spin the PR hired by Delta was publishing continuously, and that for DL was indeed a good replacement for the substantial lack of a compelling offer.
I will offer here my 2cents on the matter: the LAN-TAM combo will be cleared by all relevant authorities in few months, and immediately following will be TAM exit from * to OW, in a manner reminiscent of the fast switching of CO from ST to *. No wait, no hassles, no exit fees, all clear cut as it should be.

I remember any *A member can't join another alliance for at least 2 years when they leave *A as part of the alliance contract. Wasn't it why MX had to wait that long before they joined oneworld?

That story did the rounds at the time, I am not sure whether it has ever been verified. In any case, MX took a lot longer than 2 years to go from *A to OW.

LAN's CEO quoted yesterday (March 29) that he expects takeover of TAM to be completed within six weeks, i.e. by mid-May.
No word yet on if/when TAM will become affiliated with Oneworld, but I would assume they will make some sort of announcement prior to, or around the time of, the takeover.

Happy Travels.