British Airways, Iberia and American Airlines have an existing transatlantic joint venture agreement stretching back to 2010.
LATAM and American already have an alliance with code-sharing that began in 1999 and are also Oneworld partners when LAN Chile joined the organization in 2000.
The airlines plan to file for antitrust immunity from the U.S. Department of Transportation and appropriate local authorities in South America.
Latam is the new brand for Lan Airlines and Tam Airlines and affiliates that's being rolled out this year.
Both agreements are subject to various governments' regulatory approval which could take approximately 12-18 months.
British Airways owner IAG has signed a joint venture agreement with Latam Airlines on flights between Europe and South America. LATAM has subsidiaries in Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru and a presence in other countries on the continent as well.
"Customers will benefit from more frequent and convenient schedule options than the carriers could offer individually", says American chief executive Doug Parker.
Walsh had spoken repeatedly in the recent year of IAG's desire to expand its partnership with LATAM. Under the terms of the agreement, the airlines will cooperate commercially on flights between the European Union and South America, and wouldexpand their codeshare arrangements to increase the number of destinations offered to customers.
For IAG, the deal advances Chief Executive Willie Walsh's stated aim of working more closely with Latam, and would unite all three companies in what he said would be a "sensible next step" in their trans-Atlantic strategies.
American Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL) and LATAM Airlines Group are applying for regulatory approval to enter into a joint business (JB) to better serve their customers.
"This would boost both tourism and business travel between South America and Europe", he added.
Through the proposed joint business, American will provide LATAM customers greater access to cities in the US and Canada via American's key hubs in Miami, New York, Dallas/Fort Worth and Los Angeles.
The Latin American carrier adds that the new joint business deals will strengthen its planned hub in northeastern Brazil, which it plans to launch to boost connectivity to Europe.
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