Will an Azul-TAP partnership skew the alliance dynamics in Brazil as Avianca Brazil joins Star?

Brazil's fourth largest airline Avianca Brazil marks a milestone in Jul-2015 when it formally joins the Star Alliance. With Avianca Brazil finally entering Star the alliance will be able to fill some of the void left by TAM, which jumped to oneworld in 2014 as a result of its 2012 merger with LAN.

But Star has also been courting Brazil's third largest airline Azul, whose chairman David Neeleman recently prevailed with his partners in acquiring TAP Portugal, a Star member which is also the largest carrier in the Brazil-Europe market. For now Azul does not seem interested in joining a global alliance and is instead focusing on concluding codeshare discussions with JetBlue and United. But eventually Azul could reconsider and give Star two Brazilian members.

Although Brazil is presently enduring economic weakness, Star's pursuit of two airlines to fill the gap created by TAM's exodus shows the long-term strategic value of the country, which is by the largest in Latin America. Star clearly sees a need for two Brazilians members in order to fully restore its presence in the Brazilian market.