Star Alliance CEO Jaan Albrecht confirmed in a recent interview with ATWOnline that the alliance is in membership talks with Air Malta.
Founded in 1997, Star Alliance is the world’s first and largest airline alliance, counting 21 full and three regional members among its ranks.
Although he said a future member would not be announced “soon”, Albrecht confirmed that the alliance has held talks with Air Malta – mentioned by some sources as a future associate. The airline has long been rumoured as a potential new member of the alliance, which benefits both travellers and the airlines themselves through cost-saving initiatives.
Albrecht said he sees a “renewed and more aggressive” interest in the alliance from member airlines as well as from non-allied
carriers, owing to the recession and industry downturn.
“We saw a similar trend after 9/11. Our members are keener to find or participate in initiatives in the area of cost savings and
synergies,” he told ATWOnline.
The network, revenue and cost savings benefits also are attracting more carriers to the world’s largest alliance, Albrecht claimed, adding that “many candidates do contact us. Initially, it was very difficult to recruit candidates.”
The fact that Star, oneworld and SkyTeam account for three-quarters of global traffic proves “that we were right, 12 years ago, to establish an alliance. Many were very critical of the idea and many have been equally critical of a lot of the initiatives we have taken, yet many have followed our example. Look at the recent decision of oneworld and SkyTeam, 10 years later than we did, to have aircraft with their alliance livery.”
Albrecht dismissed criticism that Star, with 21 full members, three regional members and five confirmed future members, is becoming too large and unmanageable. “We started with five, grew to 10 and today we have over 20 members. It’s an evolution, and we had to rethink several times the way we do business and how to remain relevant. We are in the process of a new analysis of our corporate governance that will be announced soon,” he said.
Starting in 2004, Star Alliance divided its member airlines into “full members” and “regional members”. Before being accepted as a regional member, an airline must be sponsored by a full member. Full members may have some affiliate airlines that are either owned by or in a contractual relationship with a Star Alliance full member.
Affiliate airlines fall under the full member umbrella in respect to the Star Alliance rules, policies and benefits. All the affiliate airlines grant Star Alliance frequent flyer benefits, and usually
feature the Star Alliance logo on their aircraft, public relations
material and advertisements.
Star Alliance members fly 18,100 daily flights to 975 airports in 162 countries with a fleet of 3,359 aircraft. Its members carried a total of 405.7 million passengers, with a turnover of $95.3 billion in 2006. The alliance’s market share is 28 per cent of the global market, based on revenue passenger kilometres (RPK). All Star Alliance carriers combined employ over 401,577 pilots, flight attendants and other staff.