TAM of Brazil is preparing to relaunch its São Paulo to Frankfurt route in the "near future" as long as it can reach a commercial partnership with Lufthansa which is no longer tied to TAM's local rival Varig following the carrier’s exit from Star Alliance a month ago.
The airline previously operated a multistop route from São Paulo to Frankfurt and then on to Zurich for a short time in 2001.
A TAM source tells Flight: "Frankfurt is an interesting destination for TAM, but we are not going to repeat our previous experience when we found that it was a connection centre, with only a small proportion of the traffic really originating or ending there. With an adequate partner, Frankfurt would become a priority for our network development.”
The source does not identify Lufthansa by name but makes clear that TAM expects Varig to withdraw from the route soon from the route after losing access to the Star Alliance hub in Frankfurt.
He says: “We discovered that it was impossible to operate that route profitably without a strong partner and that remains true for any carrier on the route.”
A final decision has not been taken, says the source, but he adds that it is “looking good” for a partnership to be created on the route.
A further indication that Varig will withdraw is that the leases on its remaining intercontinental aircraft – a pair of Boeing MD-11s – are due to expire within a month. Although the airline has made no comment on the situation, there is currently no sign of an agreement on replacement aircraft in that class.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
