MAX KINGSLEY-JONES / BANGKOK
Group is also looking to China, eastern Europe and India for potential members
The Star Alliance, led by Lufthansa and United Airlines, will bring its 15 member airlines closer over the next year through integration of their computer reservation systems (CRS). The alliance is also eyeing new members to expand its coverage.
The key to Star's more integrated structure is the completion last year of its StarNet system, a multi-million dollar project which provides a simplified interface between each member's CRS. "This enables our 15 [systems] to talk to each other - whether they are Amadeus or Apollo - and the information to be displayed in the format and language of the airline accessing the data," says Star vice-president products and services Kristian Kirchheiner.
He adds that a second phase, providing passenger name recognition ticketing across all the Star partners, will be in place within a year, enabling any Star member to access, modify or issue the tickets of any other member. The network will also enable new members to be integrated more rapidly into the alliance.
StarNet has also allowed Star to offer corporate deals to multinational corporations, whereby one carrier can negotiate alliance-wide contracts for all the other airlines. This programme is in the testing stage, and Star hopes to have it on the market next year, says the alliance's chief executive, Jaan Albrecht.
He says that negotiations are complicated when an airline needs to share commercial data with another partner but lacks antitrust approval. "We have found a perfectly legal way around this, but I am not going to reveal what it is at the moment," he says.
Meanwhile, Star continues to look for potential new members, currently focusing on China, eastern Europe and India. "Air China has the strongest relationship with Star and I hope we will have some good news to announce," says Albrecht. He adds that following the collapse of the Swissair-led Qualiflyer alliance "there are opportunities to do something in central and eastern Europe and we are talking to several carriers".
These are believed to include LOT Polish Airlines, which expressed interest in Star when it was still part of Swissair's Qualiflyer group last year (Flight International, 7-13 August 2001).
Star is also studying Swissair's former subsidiary and now successor Crossair, reborn as Swiss.
Albrecht says that Star is already purchasing fuel and other supplies centrally, and it is looking to rationalise its supplier base where possible. "The joint purchase of aircraft would be very ambitious...it is at least five years away. We are currently trying to define a common specification."
As part of efforts to consolidate airport operations worldwide, Star has reached agreement with Aéroports de Paris to adopt Terminal 1 at Charles de Gaulle as the Star terminal when it is refurbished in 2005, it says.
Source: Flight International
