Delta Air Lines and the LATAM Airlines Group have announced that the U.S. Department of Transportation has granted final approval to their joint venture. The airline partnership is expected to offer passengers access to over 300 destinations, between the United States/Canada and South America (Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay).
Once implemented, the approval enables Delta and LATAM Airlines Group, LATAM Airlines Brazil, LATAM Airlines Colombia, LATAM Airlines Peru and LATAM Airlines Paraguay to begin the work of unlocking new customer and cargo benefits—including enhanced service and expanded route offerings–that will add to the codeshare routes and reciprocal loyalty benefits already in place.
“Delta’s partnership with LATAM will help grow the market between North and South America and provide significant and much-needed benefits for customers, and we applaud the DOT for this final approval,” said Ed Bastian, Delta’s CEO.
“The approval by the DOT will give rise to the start of work with Delta to deliver more and better benefits to LATAM and Delta customers, such as faster connections, and the joint accrual of miles in frequent flyer programs, among many others,” said Roberto Alvo, CEO of LATAM Airlines Group.
Delta and LATAM announced in 2019 that they would form a partnership throughout the Americas, with the goal of expanding travel choices across North and South America. Since then, the partners have achieved a number of milestones that include mutual frequent flyer mile accumulation/redemption; reciprocal elite frequent flyer benefits; shared terminals at hub airports like New York- JFK, São Paulo and Santiago; and mutual access to 53 Delta Sky Club lounges in the U.S. and five LATAM Lounges in South America, including Delta’s new Sky Club in Los Angeles and the new LATAM Lounge in Santiago de Chile.
In 2020, Delta and LATAM introduced their codeshare services in South America. In 2021, codeshare services were expanded to 20 U.S.-South America routes plus connections to a range of domestic and regional destinations from their hubs in Atlanta, New York, Los Angeles, Santiago, Lima, Bogota and São Paulo.
For more details, visit delta.com and latamairlines.com.
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