5 Other Carriers In Star Alliance

Five leading international airlines, namely Lufthansa, Air Canada, Thai Airways, SAS & United Airlines, yesterday signed a historic pact to form a Star Alliance, paving the way for an integrated global air transport network which will link nearly 600 cities across the world.

The pact will enable passengers of the five airlines to enjoy code sharing benefits such as reciprocal privileges at 179 airport lounges, common frequent flier schedules and early check-ins for baggage transfers. The fleet strength of the alliance amounts to around 1,334 aircraft, with 6,233 daily departures.

Speaking at the launch ceremony, Lufthansa chairman Jurgen Weber who will also be the chairman of the alliance Air Canada president and chief executive officer R Lamer Durrett, Thai Airways president Thamnoon Wanglee, SAS president and CEO Jan Stenberg and United Airlines chairman and CEO Gerald Greenwald asserted that the individual identity of each airline would be maintained. However, the Star Alliance logo will appear as an additional feature on the fuselage of all the aircraft of each airline.

 

Later, addressing a joint press conference, the five confirmed that Varig Brazilian Airlines had signed an agreement at the launch ceremony to become the sixth member of the alliance by October 1997. More additions to the alliance were in the offing, they added.

Asia is the fastest air traffic growth region in the world. We are hopeful that there will be other alliance partners in that region soon, said Greenwald.

The alliance partners said they had no intention of merging to develop identical product offerings. Our research tells us categorically that our customers enjoy and appreciate our varied cultures , said Stenberg.

The five airlines will share single ticket offices in certain cities. They also plan to work together to provide savings from buying aircraft to toilet paper. However, there are no plans for equity exchanges. Code-sharing arrangements with airlines outside the alliance will also not be affected.

The five executives said that the alliance partners had come together as they could not keep pace with the rapid globalisation of business and travel individually. Hence, it was necessary to forge a common platform to expand customer benefits to keep the loyalty of their travellers.

They added that the alliance has been designed to facilitate long-term relationships, but mechanisms have been built in to allow a carrier to opt out if it so wishes.