After two years of studies and discussions, TAM and LAN begin to retire their original brands. “It was not easy,” said Mauricio Amaro, son of Captain Rolim and chairman of LATAM group. “TAM brand has a 40 years tradition, the LAN brand, 80 years.” Enrique Cueto, CEO for the group, commented on the difficulty of Chileans in to let go the star, the symbol of LAN for 50 years.
It was announced today, in a simultaneous event in Brazil and Chile, the new joint brand that forms the LATAM group. And the new brand is just … LATAM.
To the expectation created around the brand, the lack of novelty name is frustrating. But the choice makes sense: the name joins the original marks and still means “Latin America” – an important quality of a company that has subsidiaries in Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Paraguay and Colombia.
If the new name has a downside, it is to sound bad in Portuguese: jokes with brass and old-can now are commonplace when passengers have any melee on board.
The Individual brands LAN and TAM will not disappear immediately; the new brand was announced, but not yet released. The first aircraft painted with the new brand should be inaugurated in the first half of 2016. LATAM website will start selling tickets next year.
The integration between both companies is happening quickly. From November on, the flight Sao Paulo-Milan will be originated in Santiago and operated by the current LAN airplanes. The future hub that will be located in the Northeast region (the city has not been determined yet), will serve as a flights distribution center for the various South American bases in the group.
