Star Alliance, the world’s largest global airline alliance, celebrated its silver jubilee on May 14, 1997, with a new brand tagline of ‘Together. Better. Connected.” The 26-airline alliance is the world’s first global alliance founded by five airlines from three continents in Frankfurt, Germany, 25 years ago.
25 years of connecting people
Since the inception of Star Alliance in 1997, its expansion has escalated gradually from five to twenty-six airline partners with a passenger count of more than 176 million and over 50 global hubs. On its silver jubilee, the alliance launched a new campaign consisting of a six-minute documentary-style film reflecting hardships faced during the pandemic and the greatness of resuming connections with each other and the world since. In line with the celebration of 25 years of connecting people globally, the alliance announced to release of exciting campaigns and customer innovations under the new brand platform ‘Together. Better. Connected’ with a view to depict the unique and meaningful impact of human connections across the world when people come together.
Jeffrey Goh, CEO of Star Alliance, talked about the success of the alliance in uniting global leading world carriers with a firm focus on the future while keeping customers at the center of their work and robust global network. Goh underlined the milestone achievements and advanced innovations of the entity and provided an outlook of the alliance’s further developments in seamless connectivity by becoming the most digitally advanced airline alliance.
Advancing passengers’ digital experience
Technology is core to the strategy of Star Alliance as it aims to offer smooth travel experiences with a unique loyalty proposition through seamless digital connectivity. The alliance and its member carriers seek to bring forward new digital and mobile innovations and exciting industry-first offers for loyal customers. Offering the largest and most comprehensive airline network, Star Alliance moves along the path to enable technology to provide seamless journeys and delight loyal customers of its partner carriers. The new, future-facing tagline aims to foster better human connection across the globe by leveraging robust and ever-evolving IT infrastructures.
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Future offerings
- To offer a new partnership model to strengthen network leadership
- Launch of co-branded credit in the regional market to allow partner airlines’ frequent customers leap opportunity of gaining miles and points with spends
- Jointly adopted a sustainability statement with member airlines, together with the rest of the industry, to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by the middle of the 21st century
- Availability of Star Alliance Biometrics across four trial airports- Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna, and Hamburg
- Amplify Digital Connection Service to expand the Star Alliance Connection Centers to provide proactive help for customers with tight connections and spring into action in the event of incoming flight delay
- Compilation and online redemption of mileages and upgrades across 26 full members
Rolled out in November 2020 on a limited basis, the biometric scheme of Star Alliance has now seen a huge registration spike, with more than 70000 frequent flyers registered for the scheme. Currently, in use at four European Airlines, the rollout of biometrics has gained speed with the return of passenger demand, and Star Alliance looks forward to installing biometrics across the terminal for bag drop, pre-security, lounge access, and also for boarding.
Overcoming years, Star Alliance and its member carriers will commit to the industry goal of net-zero carbon emissions, with possible solutions like decarbonization through the development of hydrogen aircraft.
Another initiative for Star Alliance includes an intermodal partnership between the full member carrier and non-airline to integrate service and routes for a seamless passenger experience. Other future offerings include the progressive ability to reserve seats without having to access reservations multiple times, bag tracking on multi-airline itineraries, etc.
Member airlines of Star Alliance
On May 14, 1997, five carriers viz. United Airlines, Scandinavian Airlines, Thai Airways, Air Canada, and Lufthansa formed Star Alliance with the slogan of ‘the Airline Network for Earth.’ At present, the alliance has 26 full members, including Air China, Air New Zealand, All Nippon Airways, Asiana Airlines, Turkish Airlines, etc., and 40 non-voting affiliate members. Headquartered in Frankfurt, the member airlines of Star Alliance fly to an extensive network of 195 countries using a fleet of more than 5000 aircraft.
The alliance has gradually expanded its portfolio, relying on the customer value proposition of global reach, worldwide recognition, and seamless service. Shaping the growth of air transportation, Star Alliance combines strength and innovation to offer smooth connections across a world-leading global network.
