United wants to include Brazil’s Azul in its planned tie-up with Copa Holdings and Colombia’s Avianca Holdings to create a four-way partnership in Latin America, a senior executive said Friday. “Working together gives us a shot at being No. 1 in Latin America. We need partners to do it,” United COO Andrew Nocella said. United, Avianca and Copa announced last November their intention to create a joint venture for travel between the United States and Latin America. The proposal requires antitrust approval before it can be implemented. When first announced, the partnership did not include trips to and from Brazil. Azul’s participation would expand the venture’s reach to roughly a third of the region’s residents. Azul is Brazil’s No. 3 airline and operates few flights to the US. But its domestic reach is expansive, including more flights within Latin America’s largest economy than any other airline. Azul is also a natural partner for United, which already owns about 8% of Azul’s non-voting shares. Azul said earlier this month at an event with analysts in the Brazilian city of Campinas that it was interested in joining the partnership with United, but that nothing was certain.<br/>
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United is in early discussions with Apple Inc about upgrading the US carrier’s terminal at San Francisco International airport, United’s Chief Digital Officer Linda Jojo told journalists on Friday without providing more details. “I’m being deliberately vague,” she said. Apple declined to comment on the development. The company has supplied United with iPad tablet computers in the past, but also has deals with United rivals such as American Airlines to let Apple Music customers listen to streaming music on its planes without purchasing in-flight WiFi.<br/>
The paperwork for anti-trust immunity for a joint venture between United, Panama's Copa Airlines and Colombia's Avianca will likely not be filed with regulators until next year, thus pushing back a potential start for the project to 2021 at the earliest, Copa's CE Pedro Heilbron said Sunday. The Star Alliance carriers unveiled the deal for the three-way joint venture in November 2018. The accord would require approvals from regulators in several countries, including the US Department of Transportation, which has to grant anti-trust immunity. "It's a three-way business agreement and it's been delayed for obvious reasons, considering everything that's going on in our southern neighbour," Heilbron says, referring to uncertainty at Colombia's crisis-ridden flag carrier Avianca. "I would have told you a few months ago that it would be before the end of the year but right now I will not promise anything," he adds. "It will get filed eventually." In the past months, Avianca has gone through a deep financial crisis during which it restructured debt, changed ownership, hired a new management team and launched a new strategic plan. Under its "Avianca 2021" strategic plan, announced in August, the Bogota-based carrier said it will slash its fleet and capacity, sell older aircraft, and work to cut unprofitable flying. The airline also said that it expects capacity growth will turn negative year-over-year in the fourth quarter. A major pillar of the plan is optimisation of the airline's Bogota hub operation with new destinations and connections better suited to higher-yield traffic.<br/>