December 2008

The Brazilian airline TAM Airlines, the largest airline in Southern American joins Star Alliance opening the gateway to the Latin American market incorporating a strategic world market point in the alliance.

A new market

Brazil, the first economic power in Latin American represents the largest and most important market in the area, in terms of business and pleasure trips. With a South American market share of 20% and 73.9% among Brazilian airlines, TAM has the largest international travel segment to and from Brazil, furthermore it is the largest network operator in the continent.

They currently fly to 42 domestic and 16 international destinations, with a fleet of 123 aircraft, each aircraft with an average age of 5.9 years, making it the largest and youngest fleet of all Latin American airlines. Given all their characteristics, TAM is a valuable addition to the Star Alliance, since besides adding 36 new destinations to the Star Alliance network it brings a very large area into their action field, as Brazil is becoming consolidated as one of the most tempting emerging tourist markets.

Furthermore, it is a very big step forward for TAM since on joining the alliance; the Brazilian airline will have greater international presence, in addition to reinforcing even more their three strategic pillars: excellence in service, technical and operational support, and management.

New advantages

In addition, Spanair Plus members will also enjoy more advantages with this new member, benefiting from a greater and varied offer of flights and connections, both in Brazil and Latin America, plus excellent service on board and on land.

The integration process is already in progress, although will take 12 to 18 months for completion. TAM currently has excellent share code agreements with some Star Alliance members, i.e. Air Canada, Lufthansa, TAP Portugal and United, facilitating their unification. Once the process is complete, the Star Alliance network will become bigger enabling them to offer their customers over 1,000 destinations in 170 countries with over 20,000 flights daily. Furthermore, this union will consolidate Star Alliance as world pioneer in alliances.