Brazilian airline Gol celebrates the anniversaries of the cities it flies to by offering free tickets to its passengers. Rosario in Argentina is celebrating its anniversary in October and if you are planning to fly to or from the city you might as well have a look at the promotional deal.

• Dates of the free flights: 5, 6, and 7 October. Subject to availability.
• Purchases between: 5 and 22 September.
• Flights with origin or destination: GOL hasn’t updated details yet.

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Here is a summary of the entries published at D Airfare during the month of August.

• Mexicana files for bankruptcy protection
• Brazil negotiating more flight frequencies from Argentina
• Gol will have three daily flights from the Aeroparque in Buenos Aires
• Andes intends to fly from Salta to a new Brazilian destination
• Brasilia, Belo Horizonte, Fortaleza and Recife, one of them will get a new flight from Iberia
• TAM and LAN sign agreement on merger
• LATAM, the new Lan Brazil? – our assessment of the LAN/TAM merger
• Air Italy and Livingston back in Maceió
• Pluna studying 4 new Brazilian destinations
• a question for Trip airlines
• Avianca with good fares to fly Brazil – United States

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Avianca is offering good fares to fly to the United States from São Paulo or Rio de Janeiro.

There are fares (KXPP00VD) to Miami from 575 USD, to Fort Lauderdale from 545 USD and to New York from 626 USD. Taxes excluded. Fares valid for trips no later than 31 October 2010. Minium stay is three days and maximum 2 months.

It’s a pity the integration between Avianca Brazil and Avianca Colombia has yet to become a reality.

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We have a simple and direct question for Brazilian airline Trip:

Is the airline interested at all in having foreign tourists as part of their customer base or would the airline rather have those tourists fly with its competitors?

Do you know what the photographs above have in common? They were taken at destinations served by the Brazilian airline Trip. No prices for guessing they are all very popular destinations among the foreign crowd.

The airline, however, does not allow foreigners to purchase tickets through its website. All potential customers are requested to supply a Brazilian Tax ID number (known as CPF).

As we don’t know what a foreign national not in posession of a CPF can do to overcome that obstacle, we’ve approached Trip several times. We’ve done so through its Twitter profile and directly by email using the contact form found at its website. Our friend and colleague at D Airfare, Rodrigo Purisch, author of the essential Aquela Passagem has also approached the company with the same question. Several months have gone by and we haven’t received a single reply.

Poor customer relations? Trip is not interested in flying foreign tourists? We don’t know. But the fact is, foreign tourists that would willingly fly with Trip end up choosing a competitor that allows them to purchase tickets from abroad.

It is a pity. At a slow but firm pace Trip has developed a substantial network, reaching destinations where no one else flies and offering a standard of service above that of the main Brazilian airlines. Maybe after this post the company gets in touch with D Airfare (contact details here) with an explanation. We promise we’ll spread the news.

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According to a recent statement from a commercial director of Uruguayan airline Pluna, the company is studying for new Brazilian destinations: Campinas (state of São Paulo), Belo Horizonte (Minas Gerais), Londrina (Paraná) and the capital Brasilia.

Presently Pluna flies from Montevideo, Uruguay, to São Paulo, Río de Janeiro, Florianópolis, Porto Alegre, Curitiba and Foz de Iguazú.

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Italian airlines Air Italy and Livingston are back in Maceió, where they are operating charter flights from Italy. The service had been interrupted for some months.

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Airline consolidation is an irreversible trend that is reaching Latin America now. British and Iberia in partnership with American; Delta and Northwest and an agreement with Air France / KLM which in turn have a share in Alitalia; Lufthansa taking control of Swiss and Austrian; United and Continental; and so on.

To date, the closest airline consolidation had come to Brazil was the union of Avianca, Taca and Avianca Brasil (former OceanAir). The merger advances at a very slow pace, at least Brazil-wise. This merger might have been one of the reasons behind Lan and Tam’s reaction.

The current president of Chile, Mr Piñera, was one of the majority stockholders at Lan. Before reaching the presidency he promised he would get rid of this shares. When the sale of his stock took place Tam was repeteadly mentioned as a prospective buyer, given the good relationships between the Amaro family (Tam) and the two families controlling Lan. But the deal never came about and part of Piñera’s shares were sold at the stock exchange. The biggest share ended up in the hands of the Cueto family, which became the main controller of Lan.

The release issued to the market states that Tam, controller of Tam Linhas Aéreas, ceases to exist as a company and joins the Holding LAN, known from now on as LATAM. Tam’s stock is out of the Bovespa and the NYSE. LATAM’s stock will be negotiated at the Santiago SE and NYSE.

Enrique Cueto, Lan’s CEO, becomes LATAM’s CEO too.

Lan will control 79% of the voting stock while Tam will have 20,4%, according to Exame magazine.

All leads us to believe that in actual fact Lan bought Tam. Two reasons prevent the deal to be presented as such:

• the strict limits imposed by Brazilian legislation to the foreign control of airlines. 20% is the limit to foreign capital on a national airline (Congress is currently debating increasing that limit to 49%).
• marketing issues, with Tam still attempting to occupy the space left by Varig in the public’s imagination.

It is clear we don’t know all the details of the business deal. Due mostly to nationalistic issues, both companies will continue operating for a while with their respective names and frequent flyer programs. But the future might bring changes. Avianca/TACA are allowing transfer of rewards between their respective programs.

Tam’s Multiplus can become a useful tool for the exchange of points for miles and viceversa. That would allow the Lan Pass and Fidelidade Tam programs to continue operating independently.

Another unresolved issue is the status of two merged airlines belonging to two different alliances. Will Tam throw away the considerable investment made to join the Star Alliance? Or will Lan leave the Oneworld alliance leaving a space for Gol? Speaking of which, foreign capital is likely to set its eyes on Gol sooner than later.

Tap should be quite concerned and who knows, it might even be considering joining LATAM in the not so distant future.

Many uncertainties remain making room for speculation. Exciting months ahead.

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RELATED POSTS:
TAM and LAN sign agreement on merger

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Brazilian airline Tam and Chilean airline Lan have just announced a merger agreement. The deal will create the largest carrier in Latin America.

More information on LAN-TAM merger would create new LatAm airline giant.

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According to a news item just published, Spanish airline Iberia is planning a new flight to Brazil. It will be the first time the company flies to a destination other than São Paulo or Rio de Janeiro (it also flies to Salvador on a code-share with Iberoworld).

The candidates to get the new flight are Brasilia, Belo Horizonte, Fortaleza and Recife.

Although Iberia is not by any means an airline we favour, it’s great to hear Europeans will get a new entry point to Brazil.

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Tourism authorities from the Salta province in Argentina, where Andes airlines is based, have declared their intention of flying to a new Brazilian destination yet to be announced.

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