LATAM is moving its destination terminal in New York's JFK airport from terminal eight to terminal four, joining new owners Delta Air Lines.

What are the details?

LATAM's move over to Terminal 4 at New York's JFK seems like the final piece in the puzzle of Delta's take over. This new move will allow passengers to easily connect from LATAM and Delta flights, opening up LATAM to a Delta network of over 90 destinations from the 1st of February, 2020.

Not only that, business passengers on LATAM will be able to now access the Delta lounge at terminal four. This access also applied to LATAM Pass members (Black Signature, Black and Platinum level members). LATAM and Delta have said that they are still working on providing bilateral lounge access throughout their network, but these changes will take a bit longer to roll out.

“Moving LATAM’s operations at JFK marks another important milestone in our journey towards offering the best connectivity and customer experience in the Americas,” said Roberto Alvo, Chief Commercial Officer of LATAM Airlines Group in the press release. “We are committed to providing a seamless transition for customers around the globe and are working tirelessly to deliver the benefits of the framework agreement with Delta as soon as possible.”

Delta made a bid to purchase 20% of LATAM for $1.9 Billion USD and was approved on the 26th of December last year. As part of this deal, Delta would invest $350 million into the carrier (to support a strategic alliance between the two) and in return will acquire four Airbus A350 aircraft. Delta will also back a LATAM order for 10 more Airbus A350s to be delivered from 2020 onwards.

What about codeshare flights?

Now that LATAM and Delta are partners, when can we expect to see them codeshare flights?

Originally as part of LATAM Oneworld membership, LATAM codeshared many of its US destinations with American Airlines. Now that LATAM is with Delta, they have said that it will formally end all codeshare agreements with AA by the end of this month (January 2020).

Any passengers that have booked on an American Airlines codeshare flight will still have their ticket honored. Additionally, the airline has kept its agreements with Oneworld for frequent flyer access and lounge access until the carrier formally leaves. Typically an airline has to give one-year notice period before it can depart oneworld, so we should expect LATAM to be free to join Delta's Skyteam in September 2020.

From here, LATAM intends to start codesharing with Delta for flights between LATAM destinations and the United States.

So far each of these codeshares needs to have regulatory approval from various different countries such as Peru, Colombia, and Ecuador. So far only Colombia has approved the new flights with Peru and Ecuador expected shortly in the early months of 2020. Brazil and Chile will follow suit in the latter half of the year.

LATAM will automatically update reservations for customers with itineraries to/from New York/JFK on February 1, 2020 onwards, taking into account minimum connection times.

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