In this context, Travel2latam spoke with Delia Ortega, Regional Manager for Peru and Ecuador for Delta Air Lines.
What is Delta's presence in Latin America? What is the commercial relationship with LATAM Airlines?
What we have is a joint venture with LATAM, we have already completed two years and we are extremely excited and pleased with the results we have been getting.
The joint venture is focused on increasing connectivity between the US, Canada and South America, and vice versa. The countries included in South America in this alliance are Chile, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. And it is wonderful because connectivity of more than 300 flights has been achieved both to the United States and to South America.
In general, airlines make agreements to have a greater presence. We can sell flights from other airlines as interline flights within our tickets and that is wonderful for the passenger. However, the joint venture brings many more benefits.
Passengers will enjoy a much broader connectivity network, because the two airlines that make up this partnership can use, promote and sell each other's flights, as long as they are within the determined area, which in our case is the USA, Canada and South America.
It's not just about connectivity, which is the main point, but also about loyalty benefits: Sky Miles and Latam Pass. If the passenger has elite status, for example, in Sky Miles and travels on LATAM, their status will also be recognized. On Delta flights, they will also have priority access through Sky Priority for both themselves and their luggage.
How long ago was this joint venture launched?
On October 3, we celebrated our second anniversary. It has been a great success, we have transported more than 5 million passengers during this period. In addition, six new routes have been added between the United States and the different countries of South America. There has even been a second Lima-Atlanta flight, operated by LATAM.
We now have two daily flights to Atlanta, one operated by Delta, which we fly on an Airbus 350, which is a wide-body aircraft with a capacity of 339 passengers, which is quite large. And we have the LATAM flight. These are two daily flights that give the passenger the possibility of choosing between different itineraries. One leaves at night, the other at midday.
Since the merger has been successful, are you planning any other implementation for the benefit of the passenger?
Of course. It is a constant analysis and above all we focus a lot on expanding connectivity throughout the region.