Brazil's TAM Airlines joins Star Alliance

TAM Airlines, a leading Brazilian carrier, has joined the Star Alliance network.

TAM Airlines offers more than 40 destinations in Brazil and 10 airports across South America. Over the past years, the airline has expanded its intercontinental network to cover a variety of destinations in the USA and Europe, many of these being Star Alliance hubs. All in all, the Star Alliance network now counts 27 member carriers, offering more than 21,050 daily flights to 1,167 destinations in 181 countries.

"Our integration into the world's leading global commercial aviation alliance will allow us to expand our services, offering our customers a smooth and integrated travel experience. There will always be a partner airline that will treat our customers as their own anywhere across the globe," said Libano Barroso, CEO of TAM Airlines. "Our brand is now global, and Star Alliance now has a strong presence in South America."

Jaan Albrecht, CEO Star Alliance, added, "With TAM Airlines we gain a carrier based in South America, an important aviation market and home to many growing economies. Combining TAM Airlines' network with that of our existing member carriers will allow Star Alliance to offer a very competitive product to, from and within this region."

TAM Airlines' joining completes a process which originally began in 2006 with the first informal negotiations.

"An intense information and experience exchange process resulted from the first contact," explained Paulo Castello Branco, Vice President, Commercial and Planning, TAM Airlines. "After the official announcement of our acceptance as a future Star Alliance member in October of 2008, we started to align our operating processes, which involved our functional team at all levels, as well as those of all of our partner carriers. This was a great learning experience and a fundamental step towards our global expansion."

TAM's Fidelidade customers now collect and redeem points when travelling on all other Star Alliance member carriers. By the same token, participants in the other member carriers' Frequent Flyer Programmes (FFP) earn points every time they fly TAM Airlines and can redeem points on the TAM network. An added alliance benefit is that travel on any Star Alliance member carrier counts towards achieving status in the selected FFP. One of the Star Alliance Gold membership benefits is Lounge access; with TAM Airlines the number of designated Gold Lounges across the network has grown to over 990.

Additionally, flights operated by TAM Airlines will be included in both Star Alliance Conventions Plus and Meetings Plus, enhancing the value proposition of these products. Convention and meeting organisers based in South America can use the enlarged Star Alliance network to contract their travel requirements. Furthermore, organisers based in other parts of the world can now rely on Star Alliance to provide delegate transport from many additional destinations in South America.

Leisure travellers as well will stand to benefit from TAM Airlines' membership in Star Alliance. The popular Round the World Fare now offers numerous new travel combinations throughout Brazil and South America, as well as more flights between Brazil and Europe, and Brazil and the USA. Moreover, TAM will be selling the North America and Europe Airpasses, allowing customers to purchase "value-for-money" air travel on the Star Alliance network in these regions in combination with a long-haul ticket from Brazil.

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