LATAM and Delta Air Lines rewrite the partnerships playbook

The proposed new tie-up between LATAM Airlines Group and Delta Air Lines is a masterful move by both companies.

LATAM gains a powerful and stable US partner and also secures an opportunity to continue de-levering its balance sheet. Delta gains prime access to some of Latin America's most important and fastest growing markets, and presumably gets to exert some influence over LATAM's direction.

Their new partnership shows a certain level of forward thinking by both LATAM and Delta; it also raises questions about the long term viability of the global alliance structure as LATAM exits oneworld and Delta's partnership roster becomes more balanced between non-alliance members and SkyTeam airlines.

There are a lot of details to iron out before all the moving parts of the new relationship between LATAM and Delta become a reality, but the long term prospects for each airline have significantly improved.