Air Transport

Brazilian carrier TAM has marked its decision to enter the Star Alliance by today sealing a codeshare agreement with another of its members, Air Canada.

TAM, which hopes to formally join Star within 18 months after today announcing it has accepted an invitation to join the grouping, has sealed a codeshare deal with Air Canada due to take effect at the start of next month.

Speaking at an event in Sao Paulo today to mark its acceptance into Star Alliance, TAM CEO David Barioni Neto said: "This is the first codeshare we have signed under the umbrella of Star Alliance." It adds to existing codeshares TAM holds with Star members Lufthansa, TAP Portugal and United Airlines.

The codeshare will link Air Canada to six Brazilian destinations in addition to Sao Paulo through TAM Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Recife, Belo Horizonte, Curitiba and Porto Alegre. TAM meanwhile will codeshare on Air Canada flights from Toronto to Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Montreal and Quebec City.

Air Canada currently operates daily flights between Toronto and Sao Paulo.

Meanwhile, in line with its decision to join Star Alliance, TAM is terminating its existing codeshare with SkyTeam carrier Air France on flights to Paris.

"The codeshare with Air France will end on 31 October," explains TAM VP commercial and planning Paulo Castello Branco.

But he says the carrier will retain its codeshare with another airline from a rival alliance, Oneworld carrier LanChile. "When we started negotiations [with Star Alliance], we talked about LanChile. This is a co-operation largely covering South America and we will keep our codeshare operation with LanChile," he says, though noting it will evaluate it again at a later period.