The Star Alliance aims to bring online its new "StarNet" harmonised computer system on 19 October, clearing the way for the group to begin rolling out customer service upgrades.
StarNet will initially link together the previously incompatible computer systems of 10 of the 13 Star members. Recent recruits Singapore Airlines, British Midland and Mexicana are due to be included within the next few months, bringing the total number of airline staff that will regularly access StarNet to 335,000.
Star says the network, which took more than three years to develop at a cost of "tens of millions of dollars", will for the first time enable the airlines to routinely check-in passengers for each other's flights, revise bookings and access real-time flight information for all alliance services. It should also ensure that frequent travellers are instantly recognised by all of the member carriers.
StarNet avoids the prohibitively high cost of equipping every Star member with a new computer system by linking existing applications through a series of gateways to a secure "extranet", using SITA's worldwide telecommunications network. Intermediate computer equipment, or "middleware", has been installed in Chicago, Montreal, Tokyo and Frankfurt to "translate" information exchanges between the airlines.
End users will operate their systems at individual airlines as normal, but will have a greater volume of real-time data available. Prime contractor for the StarNet project is the Systems division of Star founder member Lufthansa.
Source: Flight International
