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The story
Founded by Arturo Merino Benítez in 1929, in Santiago.1
Merger
Chile's LAN-Chile and Brazil's TAM Linhas Aéreas signed a non-binding agreement to merge on 13 August 2010, followed by a binding agreement on 19 January 2011, and papers to close the merger on 22 June 2012, with TAM Linhas Aéreas' shareholders agreeing to the takeover by LAN Airlines. Enrique Cueto, former CEO of LAN, became the CEO of LATAM; LATAM now has been reworked into being a portmanteau word of "Latin" and "America". Mauricio Rolim Amaro, formerly vice-chairman of TAM, became LATAM chairman.
Government approvals
The agreement to establish LATAM was approved by Chilean authorities on 21 September 2011, with 11 restrictions. These included transferring four landing slots at São Paulo–Guarulhos International Airport to competitors interested in operating flights to Santiago de Chile's Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport, renouncing membership to either the Oneworld or Star Alliance airline alliance, restricting the increase in capacity on flights between Brazil and Chile, and opening code-share possibilities and fidelity program membership to interested competitors. On 14 December 2011, Brazilian authorities approved the agreement, imposing similar restrictions as Chilean authorities: LATAM would have to choose an alliance by August 2012 and frequencies between São Paulo and Santiago de Chile would have to be reduced. At the time, TAM had two pairs of slots while LAN had four. LAN had to relinquish two pairs to competitors interested in using them. On 7 March 2013, LATAM announced its final decision to choose Oneworld as its global airline alliance. As a result, TAM left Star Alliance during the second quarter of 2014 to join Oneworld.
Rebranding
In August 2015, it was announced that all LATAM Airlines Group airlines would fully rebrand as LATAM, with one unified livery to be applied on all aircraft by 2018. The rebranding included all aspects of the business, such as staff uniforms and airport check in facilities. The first of the aircraft were repainted (or delivered new) in the new LATAM livery in April 2016.
Delta stake and Oneworld departure
On 26 September 2019, Delta Air Lines announced its plans to buy 20% of LATAM for $1.9 billion, to expand Delta's access to the Latin American market. Additionally, Delta agreed to pay LATAM's exit fee from Oneworld and to take delivery of all Airbus A350 XWB aircraft that LATAM had on order. On 1 January 2020, it was reported that Delta Air Lines' acquisition of the 20% stake in the LATAM group was completed. Group CEO Enrique Cueto stepped down on 31 March 2020, and was succeeded by Roberto Alvo, the group's then-current Chief Commercial Officer. On 31 January 2020, LATAM announced that it would leave Oneworld three months later on 1 May.
COVID-19 related bankruptcy
On 26 May 2020, LATAM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States due to economic problems attributed to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on aviation, although they continued to operate while negotiating terms. In response to the bankruptcy filing, the company's stock ticker (LTM) was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange on 9 June 2020 and moved to the unregulated OTC Markets Pink on 12 June 2020 using the stock ticker LTMAQ. To assist with the COVID-19 pandemic in Peru, the company announced that its subsidiary LATAM Perú would help distribute vaccines to fifteen provinces in Peru for free.
Bankruptcy recovery
LATAM emerged from bankruptcy proceedings in 2022, coupled with a restructuring of the company. And on 24 July 2024, the company's LTM stock ticker was relisted on the New York Stock Exchange.
From Wikipedia’s article on LATAM Airlines, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4