European members of the Star alliance are looking at the possibility of setting up joint venture companies to run some of their key IT functions.
These could include revenue accounting and frequent flyer programmes. Ulrich Wachter, Lufthansa's vice president for sales and services in Europe, says the European Star partners are "reaching the limits" in terms of what the carriers are willing to give up to the common cause. The establishment of jointly controlled neutral companies would be "the next quantum leap".
The idea behind this is that Star's European partners - Lufthansa, SAS, bmi british midland and Austrian Airlines - would select the best available system in use by the existing partners, rather than develop new software. "None of us can afford new systems," Wachter says. He notes that bmi, for instance, has less expertise in network selling than Lufthansa. As a result, bmi will migrate over to an IT platform supplied by the German carrier.
Some form of common branding for frequent flyer programmes is being explored. Lufthansa and bmi are discussing the possibility of bmi joining Lufthansa's programme, which, Wachter observes, has a higher profile in the USA than bmi's Diamond Club.
Source: Airline Business
