After the news that moved the Brazilian air market last week, that Azul Linhas Aéreas would be moving towards an attack against LATAM to buy the company, new information directly from the Chilean company shows that the competitor will not have an easy life if it really seeks to achieve this goal.
According to what was published by our partner site AEROIN, the CEO of the LATAM Group, Roberto Alvo, said in an interview with the EFE agency that “categorically and with all emphasis” there is no interest of the company in selling its Brazilian division, or any other active.
The focus remains fully on the Judicial Recovery that is being set up to be brought to justice in New York in the middle of this year, and Alvo is confident that the company will be more competitive and with an unbeatable cost structure after the reorganization in course.
Until today there has been no official comment by Azul about a real intention to buy LATAM specifically, however, in recent days, there has been a significant movement in this direction, which implied the end of the codeshare agreement of the two companies followed by Azul’s announcement that it hired financial consultants to deal with market consolidation and information from LATAM’s creditors (aircraft leasing companies) that the competitor would contact them to prepare the offer.
It remains to be seen what is the consolidation opportunity that Azul is pursuing, and what are the steps that LATAM Brazil will follow for its recovery in this complicated context.
