Andrew Doyle/MUNICH
The six airline members of the Star Alliance have appointed a dedicated management team to take over the day-to-day running of their operation in a bid to achieve more effective co-operation in key areas.
The move forms part of aggressive plans by Star, the largest members of which are United Airlines and Lufthansa, to maintain its headstart over rival global alliances such as oneworld and allow it to "-meet head-on the next phase of airline competition".
Star's alliance management board will consist of six executives who are charged with implementing the five-year business plan approved by the heads of the member carriers at their recent meeting in Rio de Janeiro.
The board is to be chaired by Lufthansa executive vice-president alliances, Friedel Roedig, with United Airlines director alliances Bruce Harris taking the position of deputy. The other four members of the management board will take on responsibility for specific areas of strategic importance to Star, such as network development, passenger services, information technology and sales and marketing, which were previously overseen by working groups. Roedig says: "Now that this groundwork is in place, the time of the purely committee-based organisation is over. We are ready to accelerate the process."
Lufthansa says a key factor behind the move is the need to speed up the decision-making process, placing accountability for key areas with individuals instead of working groups. "It is very important not to wait with certain decisions until the next meeting of the airline presidents," says the German flag carrier. He declines to comment on the objectives of Star's five-year business plan, or exactly how much authority the members of the management board will have.
A source close to the Star Alliance explains: "It's a little too early to see the actual level of decision-making freedom. That's something that will be established over the next couple of months."
In addition to United and Lufthansa, the founder members of Star include Air Canada, SAS, Thai and Varig. Three other members of the management board so far announced are Ross MacCormack of Air Canada, responsible for network development, Per Stendebakken of SAS, who will look after "seamless service" and product development, and United's Bruce Parker, responsible for information technology and automation.
Air New Zealand, Ansett Australia and All Nippon Airways intend to join the Star Alliance next year, and are expected to be joined by Singapore Airlines.
Source: Flight International
