Chile’s National Economic Prosecutor’s Office (FNE) approved American Airlines’ acquisition of a minority stake in JetSMART. In 2021, both companies signed a letter of intent (LOI) to move forward with a codeshare agreement between the United States and South America.
Previously, Indigo Partners and the Dallas-based airline submitted to the FNE a request for a «concentration operation consisting of the acquisition by American Airlines of a minority stake in JetSMART.» Both companies complied with all the requirements established by the prosecutor’s office.
In the FNE’s report, the following considerations were considered:
- American Airlines currently offers services to Chile from its main hubs, allowing passengers to connect to other destinations. The U.S. airline offers daily flights from Miami (MIA) and Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) to Santiago (SCL).
- JetSMART operates in Chile and offers domestic services, as well as international operations to Peru, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Colombia.
- American will hold a minority stake in the shares issued by JetSMART. In addition, the two airlines entered into a codeshare agreement, a frequent flyer program agreement and other commercial agreements.
- American and JetSMART do not operate the same origin-destination (O&D) routes.
- Both airlines are in the process of entering into bilateral interline and codeshare cooperation agreements as part of the alliance.
- JetSMART has not entered any cooperation with other air carriers.
- American and the Indigo Partners group airline do not have any third-party agreements aimed at marketing flights in Chile.
- Regarding cargo transportation, American has an interline agreement with an economic agent that does not transport cargo on routes within Chile.
- The prosecution concludes that if this association materializes, it is not apt to substantially reduce competition in the markets analyzed.
See also: American Airlines’ South American schedule and its correlation with JetSMART
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