alliances

Ocean Air's departure follows the company's setbacks in Brazil. The company had been under court protection against bankruptcy for several months due to its insolvency. The carrier had its Air Operator Certificate (AOC) withdrawn by the Brazilian regulatory authority ANAC. The company had been operating in Brazil since...

China Southern left SkyTeam at the beginning of the year, and since then there have been rumours that the airline is likely to join the rival oneworld alliance. These were dismissed out of hand by the Chinese carrier's management. The news was confirmed at the recent IATA General Assembly in Seoul. China Southern Airlines...

Star Alliance has renewed its cooperation with IATA (International Air Transport Association) on the pre-flight verification of travel documents. The system supported by IATA is called Timatic AutoCheck. Alliance passengers will benefit from this system, which will enable them to check in online or at the airport...

Strasbourg had been dreaming of this for a long time. To once again have a regular service to its neighbour, Germany. Although the potential exists, Strasbourg airport has had to contend in the past with the growing power of the Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden hub, some forty kilometres away on the other side of the Rhine. But the...

Since Friday 8 March, business travellers passing through Amsterdam's Schiphol airport have had access to the brand new Star Alliance lounge. Located in zone 2 of the departures level, on the Panorama terrace, this lounge has a capacity of 150 passengers, including eligible first and business class passengers, holders of...

Qatar Airways is growing faster than ever, despite an environment that its CEO, the pugnacious Akbar Al Baker, describes as "complicated, particularly because of the illegal blockade orchestrated by our neighbours", he declared during the ITB Berlin press conference. "We are losing money because the blockade can add up to...

How would you sum up 2018, in France and globally? Paul Verhagen - We set new records! In particular, we carried 200,000 passengers between Paris and Mexico City, which corresponds to an increase of around 10% compared with the previous year. As for the load factor, it remains stable...

Star Alliance business travellers should have access to a new lounge in terminal 1 at Guangzhou airport from 2019. This is one of the main conclusions to be drawn from the agreement officialized at the end of December between the managers of the airline alliance and those of the Chinese airport. In the long term, this strengthened cooperation should also...

It has often been thought that Royal Air Maroc's destiny was intrinsically linked to that of Air France, due to strong historical ties. Today, RAM is proving that it has been able to free itself from these ties, and is preparing to join the oneworld alliance, a move that will benefit the Moroccan airline at a time when Qatar Airways is...

Is the global airline alliance model being undermined? In addition to Qatar Airways' forthcoming departure from Oneworld - the official date is only a matter of time now - China Southern has officially announced that it will be leaving the Skyteam alliance in 2019. The Chinese airline based in Guangzhou (Canton) indicated a few days ago that it would...

Akbar Al Baker, CEO of Qatar Airways, is not known for mincing his words. And in recent weeks, his wrath has been directed at the Oneworld alliance, which Qatar Airways joined in 2013. The CEO of Qatar Airways has expressed his frustration at being part of a group which, in fact, does not allow him to satisfy his...

Star Alliance has therefore chosen Paris and the Roissy hub to launch a test phase aimed at enhancing the experience for its frequent flyers in its airport lounges. Since the beginning of the month, Inflight VR virtual reality headsets have been available in the alliance's lounge in Terminal 1...

The opening of the new Terminal 2 at Seoul Incheon International Airport in February symbolises the ambitions of both Korean Air, Korea's national airline, and the national airport authorities. Incheon is ideally located in North Asia - the continent's largest air transport market - as it incorporates the most important...

The SkyTeam alliance is expanding its range of business lounges with the expected opening of its eighth and ninth worldwide by the end of the year. These new additions come on the heels of the inauguration of a new lounge in Vancouver last November, and following on from North America, the alliance will now be offering its South American business lounges in Santiago,...

Markus Ruediger and Janice Antonson, respectively Director and Vice President of Communications for Star Alliance, travelled to Paris on Friday. The airline alliance, which is celebrating the twentieth anniversary of its creation, is clearly entering the age of reason, or rather the digital age. Referring to a "change of strategy", moving "from the network era to the digital era", the CEO of Star...

The new SkyTeam lounge inaugurated at Vancouver International Airport is the alliance's first on the American market, and the seventh 100% SkyTeam lounge in the world. This lounge, with its large picture windows, is built around two wings, bringing the total surface area of the lounge to 528 m². The new space has been...

In just a few days, Air France-KLM has taken a major step forward. Having just launched its new airline Joon, with the prospect of a new offensive on previously loss-making long-haul routes, the Franco-Dutch airline group is raising the level of its strategic alliances by forging capital links with Delta Air Lines and China Eastern....

Firstly, the alliances have enabled passengers to travel from one point to another across the globe on several airlines, all with a seamless service. This means online or in-branch reservations on all airlines, end-to-end baggage check-in, all cards issued...

When, in May 1997, five airlines decided to join forces to create Star Alliance - Lufthansa and Scandinavian Airlines for Europe, Air Canada and United Airlines for North America and Thai Airways International for Asia - they were witnessing a minor revolution in air transport. Even if, in truth, the movement was already well under way...

Have the global airline alliances invented some twenty years ago reached their limits? Or are they now evolving in an environment with more porous economic borders? The answer is more likely to be the latter, although many see the model being undermined by the new announcements of shareholdings and...