Chilean court gives green light to Delta-LATAM joint venture

Chile’s competition authority TDLC has given the green light to LATAM Airlines Group and Delta Air Lines to implement their planned joint venture. “The [TDLC] approved the [agreement] because it considered that the commitments and the obligations assumed by Delta and LATAM are intended to safeguard free competition in the markets concerned”, it says in a note on its website on 28 October. The ruling covers Delta’s minority stake in LATAM, a strategic alliance of the two carriers, as well as code-share agreements. It also allows Delta an ”indirect participation…in the financing of LATAM in the framework of the reorganization process” of LATAM’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. The airlines must still await regulatory approval of antitrust immunity for the joint venture from the US Department of Transportation. LATAM and Delta have been working on a trans-american joint venture since September 2019, when Delta announced it would be taking a 20% stake in the Latin American carrier worth $1.9 billion. At that time, LATAM said it would be leaving the American Airlines-dominated Oneworld alliance, of which it had been a member for 20 years.<br/>