The two-day meeting was held at the LATAM Corporate Academy (São Paulo) and at the LATAM Maintenance Center (Guarulhos). Strategic agreement links more than 120 LATAM Group South American destinations with more than 200 Delta North American destinations
LATAM Airlines and Delta Air Lines have just held the third quarter edition of their Joint Venture Leadership Team Meeting in São Paulo. The meeting, which has already taken place in Atlanta, Santiago, Bogotá and Miami, brought together around 40 senior leaders from LATAM and Delta to discuss the progress of their Joint Venture, which began in October 2022. The two-day meeting was held at the LATAM Corporate Academy (São Paulo) and the LATAM Maintenance Center (Guarulhos). Representing LATAM were Jerome Cadier (LATAM Brazil CEO), Martin St George (LATAM Group Commercial Vice President), Paulo Miranda (LATAM Group Customer Vice President) and Andreas Schek (LATAM Group Sales and Marketing Director). Representing Delta were Alex Antilla (Delta Air Lines’ Vice President for Latin America), Luciano Macagno (Delta Air Lines’ General Manager for Latin America, the Caribbean and South Florida) and Mercedes Martinez Ballesty (Delta Air Lines’ Director for Latin America).
The first day of activities, on August 28, included a guided tour of the LATAM Maintenance Center (CML) in Guarulhos, giving the invited executives and travel agency representatives the opportunity to see for themselves how this important facility works. At lunch that day, the “Amazônia Encantada” dish was served, created by chef Débora Shornik and served on LATAM’s long-haul international flights (over seven hours) that take off from Brazil as part of the Sabor à Brasileira project.
On August 29, the meeting continued at the LATAM Corporate Academy, in the south zone of São Paulo, and the agenda included topics such as commercial performance, customer experience and distribution and sales.
Jerome Cadier, CEO of LATAM Brazil, stressed the importance of the meeting in São Paulo. “The Joint Venture creates an unparalleled flight network in the Americas for LATAM and Delta customers. We have already made progress in this first year to generate the best possible connectivity and meetings like this put the whole team on the same page to evolve even further together.”
“Delta’s Joint Venture agreement with LATAM will be one year old in October and is already showing incredible results. In Brazil, specifically, at the beginning of August LATAM inaugurated the São Paulo-Los Angeles route, the only direct option between Brazil and the West Coast of the United States. And in December, Delta will launch a seasonal flight between Rio de Janeiro and New York-JFK. We are making great strides to better connect the United States and Brazil, and vice versa,” said Alex Antilla, Delta’s vice president for Latin America. “In order to continue advancing our goal of connecting the Americas like never before, expanding routes and benefits for our customers, meetings like JVLT are extremely important, as they allow for greater integration between both teams and a deeper understanding of the partner company’s culture, something that Delta values highly.”
LATAM-DELTA JOINT VENTURE
The strategic agreement between LATAM Group and Delta Air Lines has resulted in improved connectivity, linking the more than 120 South American destinations served by LATAM Group to the more than 200 North American destinations served by Delta. Since the implementation of their joint venture in October 2022, LATAM Group and Delta Air Lines have increased their capacity by 75%, and this partnership is number one in market share, measured in passengers, as well as in the number of flights between New York and South America and between Los Angeles and South America.
Since the beginning of the partnership, the airlines have worked to offer their customers the best experiences both on the ground and in the air. The airlines already share terminals at airports such as New York (JFK), Boston (BOS), Orlando (MCO), São Paulo/Guarulhos, Lima (Peru), Bogotá (Colombia) and Santiago (Chile), as well as allowing their customers access to 53 Delta Sky Club lounges in the United States and five LATAM Lounges in South America.
Customers of the LATAM Pass and Delta SkyMiles loyalty programs can accumulate and redeem points/miles and enjoy reciprocal Elite benefits when flying with the other airline. Depending on the category of frequent flyer program member, the benefits include:
- Seat selection fee waived on LATAM flights
- Priority boarding
- Preferential seating
- Priority check-in
- Additional baggage allowance
- Priority baggage handling
- Priority security check through the TSA
SÃO PAULO-LOS ANGELES NON-STOP AND OTHER LAUNCHES
On August 1st, LATAM inaugurated its direct São Paulo/Guarulhos-Los Angeles flight, the first launch for the Brazilian market resulting from the Joint Venture. In addition to being the only direct route between Brazil and Los Angeles, the new flight allows connections with Delta Air Lines to more than 20 destinations in the United States, including San Francisco, Las Vegas and Seattle.
Another newly inaugurated route, which began on July 1, was Bogotá-Orlando, operated by LATAM Colombia. In addition, October will bring the start of new routes and additional frequencies, including flights between Miami and Medellín (LATAM Colombia), Lima and Atlanta (LATAM Peru) and Atlanta and Bogotá (Delta Air Lines). The expansion of the joint venture will continue in December, with Delta Air Lines relaunching the route between Atlanta and Cartagena, as well as a new Delta route from New York/JFK to Rio de Janeiro/Galeão.