Chilean authorities approve American Airlines’ acquisition of JetSMART shares

American Airlines y JetSMART

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:

  1. 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).
  2. JetSMART operates in Chile and offers domestic services, as well as international operations to Peru, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Colombia.
  3. 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.
  4. American and JetSMART do not operate the same origin-destination (O&D) routes.
  5. Both airlines are in the process of entering into bilateral interline and codeshare cooperation agreements as part of the alliance.
  6. JetSMART has not entered any cooperation with other air carriers.
  7. American and the Indigo Partners group airline do not have any third-party agreements aimed at marketing flights in Chile.
  8. Regarding cargo transportation, American has an interline agreement with an economic agent that does not transport cargo on routes within Chile.
  9. 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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