Under Review PLease give us a Latam Forum now!

Several of us have been discussing the acute need for a Latam forum now. There are a number of reasons, but those will probably all be stated in this thread.

Suggest:

Latam sub-forum: for merger related topics including alliance selection, management changes and regulatory issues including the Argentina, Peru and other countries with a big stake in the issue.
LAN sub-forum for all those Chile and Lan-specific issues
TAM sub-forum for all those Brazil and Tam-specific issues

What do you think?

Thank you for the initiative Jbcarioca!!!

Yes. Interest and travel to Latin America are growing. It would be good to have information on these airlines gathered together and not threatening to clutter or overwhelm other fora.

Agree, would be good to have a Latam forum. As traffic to the region grows, I think it is important for them to have their own fora.

Excellent idea..... I support this 200% !!!

I think it's especially the right time to start the new forum because the AA bankruptcy is causing a lot of discussion about potential changes in the one world alliance, for instance the speculation that if DL buys all or a significant part of AA, US might move from *A to one world, with or without purchasing some of AA. The fate of AA's Latin American routes out of its MIA hub clearly matters a lot to Latam.

Very good points, not to mention the large commitments DL is making now to beef up LA and their reported revenue increase the first three quarters of last year of 42% for Brazil alone. The DL/AA combination and the debate about it will play a large political role, if nothing else, in the Latam debate. AA bankruptcy is a giant wildcard in this equation.

This is a great idea. I would really appreciate this forum as well.

I agree, and it is important for the specific operating airline fora to remain distinct (as you propose) if and until they are one general operating unit (well, as general as the LA/LP/4M etc. group).

Absolutely.

I suspect that any surprise in how AA emerges from bankruptcy, by which I mean that almost anything other than a simple restructuring of contracts occurs, would be a true game changer in the Latin Amerrican market.

I am certain of that. As a relevant aside, to your point about gamechangers, if not AMR, is the recent informal conversation quoted as coming from Enrique Cueto, the Latam CEO. On the subject of Alliances he allegedly said that Latam could do an excellent job of providing feeder passengers for Emirates. If EK management is to be believed they plan to change to an A380 to GRU as soon as the airport is ready, switch to a nonstop for Buenos Aires, and plan an upgrade for GIG as well. Then they plan to add SCL and possibly other destinations as well. The EK nonstop GIG flights now two weeks old, have been averaging 80% LF, according to local EK people one of the strongest launches they have had.

The new forum will give us lots of chances to debate such issues.

The EK service sounds good, but I'm wondering what routes through the Mideast to Latin America would make sense unless one originates in the Mideast. From the USA, most of Europe (Turkey, Russia, etc. as exceptions), most of Asia, Australia, etc. the EK flights would seem to require connecting far out of one's way.....or is my geography wrong here?

That is the eternal EK issue. For Asia it is easy since there are no nonstops and will not be any time soon. all Asia and Europe can make GRU or GIG now, onestop through DXB, albeit sometimes with ,longer flight times. Right now, to offer a ridiculous example I can fly to a common destination for me, Moscow, just as fast GIG-DXB-MOW as I can via LON, FRA, AMS or MAD, because all of those have uncoordinated departure ties so there are often long waits. Even Australia is odd because there are very limited flight to LA, those to SCL and require multiple stops. From both MEL and SYD EK has nonstops to DXB and nonstops on to GRU and GIG. The issue, as I see it is that EK does onestops nearly everywhere. Even QF stops in BKK or SIN on the way to Europe. It is quite odd that South America is hard to get to form most of the world. You might actually think we're a long way away from everywhere. QF has had the nonstop to EZE, though, which helped some.

What about South Africa? Is there a nonstop or is EK through DXB about as good as you can do? In this case, DXB would be a big detour, but less than connecting through Europe and most of the USA, again assuming that my geography is right.

I would guess that there might be non stops to Brazil from former Portuguese colonies in Africa, just as there seems to be some LIS service on TAP to Africa for historical reasons, including some historical economic and family ties.

You always guess well! There are flights on TAAG to Luanda from GIG and GRU (no you do NOT want to try it!). TAP has enough such connections that there continues to be hotly denied rumor that Latan wants to buy TAP just to have the European hub, thus really giving them some more longhaul power. The Portuguese have been trying to unload TAP for some time and their CEO is a well-regarded Brazilian, so it certainly is plausible that Latam might scoop them up for a song. It is not easy to imagine who else might want them apart from Gulf carriers, and Qatar has long been a rumored bidder. Yet another Latam issue for us to consider...

How big is TAP nowadays, relative to Latam? Would LIS work well as a hub in the corner of Europe, do they now have enough runways and terminal space? Would they stay in *A post merger?

TAP is a gnat in comparison, they have only 55 aircraft and negative equity. The airport needs expansion, especially in terminal. There are two decent runways but the airport needs additional taxiway, apron and gate enhancements to handle A380/B748. Were Latam or anybody else to make a deal they probably could find a way to finance expansion, obviously without significant financial help from Portugal or the EU. Thus the interest in Qatar, from their perspective.

I like this idea...let's be proactive and get LAN and TAM under one forum. There are a lot of us who are familiar with one and not the other, and having this info in one easy-access forum could help us to learn about the other airline faster, as well as providing the opportunity for lots of fun alliance discussions.

This is a wonderful idea.

It's quite telling that 25 of the 36 threads currently in the Other South American Airlines forum have either TAM or LATAM in their titles. I didn't even try to identify the additional threads that are about LATAM, such as lounge discussions.

Its interesting how the shifting fates of airlines and mergers may play on the alliances we currently have! Nevertheless, I see that Latin American routes will rise in importance and how this may play out in the USA given its large Latin American and expat population (not to mention tourist dollars)!

We need it. As someone who is from the region, having a place with the rifht info during this transitionary stage is very important.

I voted yes. believe this will prove very useful.

Sounds good to me