Aviation history was made twenty-five years ago when five of the world’s leading airlines joined forces to found the Star Alliance, the world’s first and now largest airline alliance. It’s headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, near the Frankfurt Airport. While some initial airline cooperation occurred in the 1930s and 1940s between Panair do Brasil and its parent company Pan American World Airways, and then again in 1989, when Northwest Airlines and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines began to code share on transatlantic flights, the first true airline alliance didn’t exist until Star was “born.” The five founding airlines of the alliance were the world leaders in aviation at the time, including Air Canada, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Thai Airways and United Airlines.
The network was established on May 14, 1997, as the first truly global airline alliance, based on a customer value proposition of worldwide reach, global recognition and a promise of seamless service. Since its inception, it’s offered the largest and most comprehensive airline network. The establishment of this alliance is considered a milestone for the industry and for international travel. The alliance chose the Young & Rubicam agency for its advertising with a budget of $25 million. From the start, all of the airlines used the same five pointed star logo. Its first slogan was “The Airline Network for Earth” as its intention was to be capable of taking its passengers to every major city on the globe. Its current slogan “The Way the Earth Connects,” is aptly reflective of its worldwide reach.
On October 22, 1997, the now-defunct Brazilian Airline VARIG join the Star Alliance network, bringing the alliance into South America. Soon, the consortium expanded to Australia and the Pacific with the addition of Ansett Australia and Air New Zealand. With the latter two carriers, the alliance then served 720 destinations in 110 countries with a combined fleet of 1,650 aircraft. In October of 1999, All Nippon Airways became the group’s second Asian airline. In the ensuing years, more airlines would join the alliance, taking its membership to 26 carriers. Current members include Aegean Airlines (A3), Air Canada (AC), Air China (CA), Air India (AI), Air New Zealand (NZ), All Nippon Airways (NH), Asiana Airlines (OZ), Austrian (OS), Avianca (AV), Brussels Airlines (SN), COPA Airlines (CM), Croatia Airlines (OU), Egyptair (MS), Ethiopian Airlines (ET), Eva Air (BR), LOT Polish Airlines (LO), Lufthansa (LH), Scandinavian (SK), Shenzen Airlines (ZH), Singapore Airlines (SQ), South African Airways (SA), SWISS (LX), TAP Air Portugal (TP), Thai Airways (TG), Turkish Airlines (TK) and United (UA).
Partner airlines promoted the Star Alliance brand with a “Round the World Ticket,” (RTW) that offered members a choice of 19,000, 21,000 or 23,000 miles traveled with stopovers of 15 cities valid for a one-year period. This RTW was ground breaking in that travel buffs were able to visit destinations of their choice by charting a year long itinerary and customer ratings went sky high, driven by the underlying message, “Forget about the countries and cities and go where our RTW ticket takes you." The ultimate travel experience offered a world-class product with outstanding value travel on alliance member airlines.
Overall, the Star Alliance network currently offers more than 12,000 daily flights to almost 1,300 airports in 197 countries across the world, according to its Web site. With 762.27 million passengers as of April 2018, Star Alliance is the biggest of the three global alliances, surpassing both SkyTeam (630 million) and oneworld (600 million). Pre-pandemic, the 26 member airlines operated a combined fleet of approximately 5,033 aircraft that served over 1,290 airports in 195 countries with more than 19,000 daily departures. By working together closely, member airlines are able to create and enhance products and services which cater to the needs of international travelers, as well as to develop IT solutions and to exploit synergies that such large-scale, global collaboration can generate.
Star Alliance has a Silver and Gold Rewards program with benefits including priority boarding and upgrades. Other benefits include priority airport check-in, priority baggage handling, extra baggage allowance, airport lounge access, priority boarding, a gold track, priority reservations waitlist and priority airport stand-by. Star Alliance Gold status can be incredibly valuable, especially when flying a partner airline on which you wouldn't otherwise have status.
Jeffrey Goh is the current CEO of the Star Alliance. Prior to assuming this position, he was Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel for the alliance, with responsibilities spanning human resources, sourcing and fuel-related projects, legal, finance and project management. Before moving to alliance headquarters in Frankfurt, he had lived in Singapore and Melbourne and held positions at the International Air Transport Association in Montreal and at Beaumont and Son, a leading aviation law firm in London. Goh has a doctorate in the principles and policies of airline competition and has published widely in the fields of aviation law and regulation. “I think one of the most important things that we have as an alliance today is the ability to set up a platform for the exchange of information,” Goh explains, particularly to share details involving ever-changing airline schedules and networks in a straightforward way."
Scott Kirby, current CEO of member carrier United Airlines was elected as the new Chairman of the Star Alliance Chief Executive Board last December. During his two-year term, Kirby will lead the board's annual meetings and act as its designated spokesperson. He succeeded Copa Holdings CEO Pedro Heilbron, who had been board chair for a four year period.Kirby started his airline career in 1995 with America West Airlines, initially serving as senior director of scheduling. Kirby went on to become President of US Airways and led the airlines team for planning the merger with America West. He was named President of American Airlines after that company merged with US Airways in 2013. He joined United Airlines as President in 2016 and was elevated to CEO in May of 2020 in the midst of the pandemic. Commenting on finding value in alliances, Kirby stated, "There's value in having a bigger network for our customers. You can accomplish that with alliances...you have to create a seamless experience to get to a global network – that’s really the strategy.”
Alliances typically support airlines and travelers by making journeys easier: whether by enforcing alliance-wide standards across airport lounge access and elite status recognition, or in the background, facilitating swift flight connections. Unknowingly or not, we have all benefitted from the interconnectivity afforded by these alliances and eagerly look forward to further benefits in the years to come.
Until next time...safe travels.
Hmmm, I wonder how much a RTW ticket cost??
I did not even know this Alliance existed so your story was educational for me.