LipeGIG From Brazil, joined May 2005, 5653 posts, RR: 52 Posted (2 months 3 weeks 6 days 6 hours ago) and read 6926 times:
TAM's CEO, Mr. Barioni, during an interview this morning, announced the airline would announce in up to 30 days that they will join one global alliance.
The CEO wasn't clear about which alliance would be, although the indication after agreements with UA, LH and TP (inclusive with code-share), suggest that Star will be their choice.
Tam also holds agreements in force with LA (for South America), AF and JAL. And the question is if these agreements are closer to it's end. With a fleet of 116 planes, and important hub operations in the three most important markets of Brazil (São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia), TAM for sure fits very well in any of the three big alliances.
As a side note, TAM will begin it's 77W use on SCL route effective TODAY (Aug 26)
Kiwiandrew From Belgium, joined Jun 2005, 4097 posts, RR: 11 Reply 3, posted (2 months 3 weeks 6 days 3 hours ago) and read 6706 times:
Indications are that it would probably be Star given the recent agreements with LH SA)">UA AC TP LX - here's hoping that it is , and also that they make a quick accession like MS rather than a long drawn out one like SA did
"You are only young once ..... but you can be immature forever!"
Jfk777 From United States, joined Aug 2006, 2398 posts, RR: 0 Reply 6, posted (2 months 3 weeks 5 days 20 hours ago) and read 6287 times:
STAR needs a first class airline in South America more then Oneworld does. Tam had a joint venture with AA before so they know how that was, you could be AA's 50-50 partner but AA was the senior partner anyways.
AlitaliaMD11 From Spain, joined Dec 2003, 3951 posts, RR: 10 Reply 8, posted (2 months 3 weeks 5 days 19 hours ago) and read 6175 times:
Quoting Jfk777 (Reply 6): STAR needs a first class airline in South America
TAM would also fill the void that Varig left after the airline left the alliance due to their ailing financial situation. With TAM joining *Alliance it would create a large web of connections for airlines such as LH, LX, UA, and TP who fly to GRU and GIG.
OneWorld already has LAN as their South American airline which has a pretty decent route network in South America. They also have Iberia and American which both have established a decent market for themselves in South America. I really don't see TAM joining OneWorld.
SkyTeam seems to be after GOL/Varig or vice versa.
Quoting VbeltraJJ (Reply 7): And just today TAM announced it´s new destination in the US: MCO.
Ota1 From Germany, joined Apr 2008, 219 posts, RR: 0 Reply 12, posted (2 months 3 weeks 5 days 18 hours ago) and read 6051 times:
Wouldn't hold my breath on JJ joining oneworld. After dropping AA in favour of UA and starting co operations with so many Star Alliance members (UA, AC, LH, LX, TP as Kiwiandrew already pointed out) it wouldn't make much sense.
JJ8080 From Brazil, joined Aug 2008, 332 posts, RR: 0 Reply 13, posted (2 months 3 weeks 5 days 16 hours ago) and read 5817 times:
Quoting VbeltraJJ (Reply 7): And just today TAM announced it´s new destination in the US: MCO.
The flight will leave GRU and will arrive in MCO. The flight is just awaiting ANAC approval.
Let´s wait for the next chapters.
Cheers.
Expected but always interesting and surprising. Nice to see a Brazilian airline back to MCO. Although, I still confused about JJ's choice to MCO istead of SFO or IAD, considering they already have quite a big network to MIA.
In the end, is the 3rd 763 gonna be differently configured from the other 3? If so, with more Y and less J, this may be the bird used on GRU-MCO-GRU...
MAH4546 From Sweden, joined Jan 2001, 22982 posts, RR: 66 Reply 14, posted (2 months 3 weeks 5 days 16 hours ago) and read 5796 times:
TAM will use their two forthcoming 763s on JFK-GIG and MCO-GRU, both daily with a redeye/daylight combination.
When two more A330s arrive in 2009, expect one or both to be moved to JFK-GIG. This will free up one 763, which can then be used on MIA-BSB (4x weekly) and MIA-FOR (3x weekly).
In addition, I am also hearing TAM is looking at starting an A320 service routed MIA-BEL-REC-SSA to protect marketshare against AA. If this is true, that would mean six daily TAM flights to Miami connecting to eight cities!
C010T3 From Brazil, joined Jul 2006, 1164 posts, RR: 8 Reply 15, posted (2 months 3 weeks 5 days 15 hours ago) and read 5763 times:
Quoting MAH4546 (Reply 14): TAM will use their two forthcoming 763s on JFK-GIG and MCO-GRU, both daily with a redeye/daylight combination.
When two more A330s arrive in 2009, expect one or both to be moved to JFK-GIG. This will free up one 763, which can then be used on MIA-BSB (4x weekly) and MIA-FOR (3x weekly).
In addition, I am also hearing TAM is looking at starting an A320 service routed MIA-BEL-REC-SSA to protect marketshare against AA. If this is true, that would mean six daily TAM flights to Miami connecting to eight cities!
That makes sense and could work. Though I am not sure if they are really going daily on GIG-JFK and GRU-MCO at first. They might run the flights 4x weekly until January when the new 332s arrive. Otherwise the utilization of the 763s would be too high.
JJ8080 From Brazil, joined Aug 2008, 332 posts, RR: 0 Reply 16, posted (2 months 3 weeks 5 days 15 hours ago) and read 5704 times:
Quoting MAH4546 (Reply 14): TAM will use their two forthcoming 763s on JFK-GIG and MCO-GRU, both daily with a redeye/daylight combination.
When two more A330s arrive in 2009, expect one or both to be moved to JFK-GIG. This will free up one 763, which can then be used on MIA-BSB (4x weekly) and MIA-FOR (3x weekly).
Quoting MAH4546 (Reply 14): That makes sense and could work. Though I am not sure if they are really going daily on GIG-JFK and GRU-MCO at first. They might run the flights 4x weekly until January when the new 332s arrive. Otherwise the utilization of the 763s would be too high.
Agree with MAH4546 that in the scenario the 763 utilization would be way to high. Actually what I heard was 4x week redeye weekly GIG-JFK and the same for GRU-MCO.. Like this, they would have 4 767s to fly 15x weelky Brazil-USA, meaning more or less, 1 flight/day for each frame. Maybe one (JFK or MCO) could be daily... But doubt about both being...
Airbazar From United States, joined Sep 2003, 3210 posts, RR: 9 Reply 18, posted (2 months 3 weeks 5 days 15 hours ago) and read 5496 times:
What's impressive in all of this is that their biggest market in N.America, MIA, has a miniscule *A presence. One has to start wondering what will be their *A hub in N.America given that currently TAM doesn't fly to any *A hub in N.America.
C010T3 From Brazil, joined Jul 2006, 1164 posts, RR: 8 Reply 19, posted (2 months 3 weeks 5 days 14 hours ago) and read 5282 times:
Quoting Airbazar (Reply 18): What's impressive in all of this is that their biggest market in N.America, MIA, has a miniscule *A presence. One has to start wondering what will be their *A hub in N.America given that currently TAM doesn't fly to any *A hub in N.America.
It would suffice if UA and US would fly to some more major cities out of MIA on times that they can feed or be fed by JJ.
Sponsor Message: 
From Brazil, joined May 2005, 5653 posts, 
From United States, joined Sep 2007, 300 posts, 
From Belgium, joined Jun 2005, 4097 posts, 
From Netherlands, joined Jun 2005, 1061 posts, 
From Spain, joined Dec 2003, 3951 posts, 
From Germany, joined Nov 2006, 911 posts, 
From Sweden, joined Jan 2001, 22982 posts, 
From Belize, joined Jun 2005, 1443 posts,