User:Mprietot/sandbox

LATAM is the new brand resulting from the joining of two South American airlines, LAN, TAM and their respective subsidiaries.3 With its head office in Santiago Chile, the airline operates passenger flights out of South America, Central America, North America and the Caribbean, Europe and Oceania with a total of 135 destinations in 23 countries. Its cargo business provides freight services to over 144 destinations in 26 countries. Regarding traffic and coverage, it’s the largest airline in South America.

The new brand was announced on the 6th of August 20155 and was the result of an important merger and subsequent process integration and validation, flight connection optimization, restructuring and fleet modernization.

LATAM employs a staff of approximately 53 thousand and owns a fleet of 312, not including ordered and as yet undelivered planes.

History
LAN was founded on the 5th of March 1929 as Linea Aerea Nacional, a state run airline that soon became LAN Chile. After the opening of certain markets (which led to the creation of LAN Peru, LAN Argentina, and LAN Ecuador), the company changed name again becoming LAN Airlines in 2005. In 2011, LAN acquired the Colombian airline Aires which later became LAN Colombia.

TAM was founded on the 21st of February 1961 by five charter pilots who joined to create their own company. Originally registered under the name “Transportes Aéreos Marília S.A.”, so named for Marilia in Sao Paulo, today its initials mean “Transportes Aéreos Meridionáis”.

LATAM Airlines Group was officially launched on the 13th of August 2010 when both companies publicly announced they had signed a memorandum of understanding and notified that its creation had been approved by the corresponding authorities in both countries. Each company kept their operations separate at their respective headquarters in Santiago and Sao Paulo and the association was finally completed on the 22nd of June 2012.

In 2104 both companies together became the first airline group in America to enter the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.

New Brand
On the 6th of August 2015, the LATAM Airlines Group announced they would adopt a unique single identity: LATAM. The brand brought together all the airfreight carrier and passenger airlines in the group: LAN Airlines and its subsidiaries in Peru, Argentina, Colombia and Ecuador; TAM Linhas Aereas S.A., TAM Transportes Aereos Del Mercosur S.A., (TAM Airlines Paraguay); and the airfreight carriers in the LATAM Group, LAN CARGO, LAN CARGO Colombia, ABSA (TAM Cargo) and Mas Air.8

The process behind the name went through various stages in which several possible brand scenarios were assessed. The study was carried out with support from the leader in global consulting and brand management Interbrand covering 10 countries, 5 of them home to LATAM Airlines Group domestic passenger operations, and other long distance destinations in which it also had significant scope.

The new brand incorporates the most valued strengths and attributes of both LAN and TAM, as well as the cumulative experience accrued over 86 and 39 years of operations respectively. The decision to create a new brand is a historic event in the aviation industry; not only is it the first airline group to come together under one brand, but it is also the first airline group with aspirations of becoming a global industry leader that at heart, is purely Latin American.

LATAM Airlines Group is currently working on modifying its corporate image, a process that will take approximately 3 years with notable changes starting in 2016; said changes will become gradually more evident in physical spaces, on planes, at business offices, airport service counters, web sites, uniforms among others. Some advances are already in place mainly in passenger travel experiences such as the new cabin interiors which have been incorporated into the fleet, new VIP lounges in Sao Paulo and Santiago currently open to the public and forming part of the largest network of frequent flyer lounges in the region, and digital platforms such as the onboard entertainment system for mobile devices. LAN and TAM frequent flyer programs and their related companies will continue to make improvements to their current programs. Regarding the brands associated with the Group, they will all be unified under one name in an effort to offer one service in accordance with the new brand.

New Logo
The logo was inspired by the region’s identity and heritage, both guiding design choices which ultimately resulted in two tailor-made colors, LATAM’s indigo and coral.

The first color represents the best of both brands as it’s the perfect middle ground between red and blue, TAM and LAN’s respective corporate colors. The second symbolizes energy and passion reinforcing the brands new image.

The colors are accompanied by other secondary colors highlighting Latin America’s rich cultural diversity.

Subsidiaries
The following are LATAM’s subsidiaries:


 * CHI LAN
 * 🇵🇪 PER LAN Perú
 * 🇦🇷 ARG LAN Argentina
 * 🇨🇴 COL LAN Colombia
 * 🇪🇨 ECU LAN Ecuador
 * 🇧🇷 BRA TAM Linhas Aéreas S.A.
 * PAR TAM Transportes Aéreos Del Mercosur S.A. (TAM Airlines Paraguay)
 * CHI LAN CARGO
 * 🇨🇴 COL LAN CARGO Colombia
 * 🇧🇷 BRA ABSA (TAM Cargo)
 * 🇲🇽 MEX Mas Air

Destinations
The airline will operate passenger flights to countries in South America, Central America, North America and the Caribbean, Europe and Oceania:

Hubs
LATAM’s main hubs are Santiago, Lima, Sao Paulo (GRU) and Bogota. The company is currently looking into a new hub in the northeast of Brazil with the objective of expanding operations between Europe and South America. Bogota was recently announced as the new hub for the Caribbean.

VIP Lounges
LATAM has 4 VIP lounges in some of the region’s main airports; at the Arturo Merino Benitez Airport in Santiago Chile, Guarulhos in Sao Paulo Brazil, Ezeiza in Buenos Aires Argentina and at the El Dorado Airport in Bogota Colombia. The most recent are the Santiago and Sao Paulo lounges.

A special feature of the new VIP lounges are the new colors and materials used in representation of Latin America and the colors representing the location of each airport. The objective is to highlight and recover some of the areas more salient cultural and folkloric aspects within the context of the Latin American continent.

Design was created in part by Putnam Studio in Paris and where its namesake, Olivia Putnam, commented on the new VIP lounges: “I feel attracted to places with a strong sense of identity making them special and unique. More and more people feel a certain fear of the new international flavor that has no link to the location they’re in. That’s why we tried to optimize South America’s wonderful diversity by choosing locally grown natural materials."