15 years ago today five forward looking and
like-minded CEOs took the bold decision to create the first ever multilateral
airline alliance, the Star Alliance network.
Founding
carriers Air Canada ,
Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, THAI and United all realised that with
growing globalisation, the need for more international travel to a wider range
of destinations would become increasingly important. As no airline on its own
would be able to achieve this, these five airlines established the Star
Alliance network with the aim of becoming the “Leading global airline alliance
for the high value international traveller”.
In
15 years the Alliance
has grown from five airlines offering a combined total of 6,000 daily flights
to 578 airports in 106 countries to a network of 25 airlines carrying more than
600 million passengers on 20,500 daily flights to 1,293 airports in 190
countries. To paraphrase the CEO of one of our member carriers: “If Star
Alliance doesn’t fly there, you probably don’t want to go”.
This growth has been achieved
by a combination of adding airlines to the