MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

TAM Mercosur and TAP Portugal Announce Partnership

TAM and TAP Portugal, a Star Alliance member, are executing yesterday a Memorandum of Agreement establishing a comprehensive alliance that comprises several areas, taking advantage of the synergies arising from their respective networks, products and services in the routes connecting Brazil and Portugal.

By next July, the companies will implement a code share, which will translate into a significant increase of flight options for passengers, as well as into the linkage of the companies' mileage programs, TAM's Fidelidade and TAP's Victoria. For TAM, the agreement will allow the commercialization of TAP's flights operated between Brazil and Portugal (Lisbon, Porto, Faro and Funchal), strengthening TAM's position in the international market with European Leisure passengers traveling mainly to the northeastern Brazil. On the other hand, for TAP, it will involve domestic destinations operated by TAM to several Brazilian capitals and cities such as Belem, Manaus, Sao Luiz, Ilheus, Porto Seguro, Campo Grande, Cuiaba, Aracaju, Vitoria, Belo Horizonte, Curitiba, Goiania, Florianopolis, Joao Pessoa, Maceio, Navegantes, Porto Alegre and Foz do Iguacu, among others, in addition to cities in South America (Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Santiago, Chile). TAM and TAP also intend to extend cooperation to other international routes operated by both companies from their hubs, subject to the authorization of the involved countries. "This agreement is key for TAP, given the dimension of the Brazilian market and TAM's remarkable position in it. From now on, TAP will count on a local partner with one of the largest service networks, both domestically and internationally, adding a great number of destination options with an irrefutable level of reliability and service quality, which will certainly bring great benefits to TAP's clients, who will also be able to accumulate and use miles in TAM's network", states Fernando Pinto, CEO of TAP. Marco Antonio Bologna, TAM's CEO, declares that the code share will convert into benefits for passengers. "With TAP, the leading airline in Portugal and with over 60 years of experience, we are going to offer new flight options in the international market and another important entry into Europe, for both the tourism and business markets". Mr. Bologna also highlights that TAP has a relevant role to play regarding the growth of the Brazilian tourism market: "TAM will now have conditions to boost the number of passengers transported to Brazil, and distribute them to several cities within the country, with the advantage of the interconnection of both companies' loyalty programs", he says. The company TAM has been the Brazilian domestic market leader since July 2003, and ended last March with a 51.72% market share. The company flies to 48 destinations throughout Brazil. With the commercial agreements executed with regional companies, it reaches 75 different destinations in Brazil. In March, TAM's international market share was 62.86% among Brazilian airline companies. International operations include direct flights to seven destinations: New York and Miami (USA), Paris (France), London (England), Milan (Italy), Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Santiago (Chile). With TAM Mercosur, it flies to seven other destinations: Asuncion and Ciudad del Este (Paraguay), Cordoba (Argentina), Montevideo (Uruguay), Santa Cruz de la Sierra and Cochabamba (Bolivia). The company also offers daily flights to Lima, Peru, operated in code-share with TACA. Besides, it keeps commercial agreements with international companies that allow passengers to fly to a wide variety of destinations worldwide. A pioneer in the launch of a Loyalty Program for airline companies in Brazil, TAM currently has 3.8 million members and has already distributed 4.2 million tickets through point redemption. About TAP it is the Portuguese airline market leader, established in 1945 and a member of the Star Alliance since 2005. Its Hub in Lisbon is a privileged access platform to Europe, at the crossroads with Africa and North and South America, where TAP stands out as the leading European airline operating to Brazil. Currently, it is the airline with the most flights from Brazil to Europe, departing from Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Recife, Fortaleza, and Natal. Starting in July, TAP will also have five additional weekly flights departing from Brasilia to Lisbon, reaching a total of 60 weekly flights. TAP also enjoys an extremely wide destination network both in Europe (where it reaches 31 cities in 16 countries) and in Africa (where it services the countries where Portuguese as the official language, besides Senegal and South Africa, totaling seven countries). In 2006, the Company's airplanes transported over 6.8 million passengers, of which 845 thousand flew to Brazil