Anticipated joint ventures with three Latin American airlines – Colombia’s Avianca Holdings, Panama’s Copa Airlines and Brazil’s Azul Linhas Aéreas Brasileiras – and the parent company of United Airlines (United), United Continental Holdings, are proving to be more complicated than initially envisaged.
While the intention is to improve connectivity between the U.S. and Latin America, increased competition in Mexico which is putting certain carriers under pressure, and Brazil’s unexpected economic recession, has complicated matters.
Connecting with the three airlines would not see United immune to the “ups and downs” of the regional market, according to the carrier’s President, Scott Kirby. “I think we will get it done in the not so distant future, but hard to predict an exact time,” he said at the International Aviation Forecast Summit in Denver, adding: “All of the turmoil in Latin America makes things complicated.”
Kirby also told reporters on the sidelines of the International Aviation Forecast Summit in Denver that United is looking to add lie-flat beds in business class in 2020 on some of its Boeing 737 MAX 10 narrow-bodies that would fly domestic routes.
United is the world’s third-largest airline when measured by revenue, after American Airlines and Delta Air Lines. The U.S. carrier operates a large domestic and international route network, with an comprehensive presence in the Asia-Pacific region. United is a founding member of the Star Alliance and operates a regional service through independent carriers, under the brand name United Express.
