12 December 2008

Brussels Airlines joins Star Alliance

Star Alliance CEOs voted to accept Brussels Airlines as a future member of the alliance at their annual Board Meeting today.

Chairman of the meeting, Glenn Tilton, chairman, president and CEO of United, said: Ã¢â¬ÅâœBrussels Airlines further strengthens the Star Alliance by offering greater connectivity throughout Europe and Africa to better serve the international travel needs of all our customers.Ã¢â¬~

Brussels Airlines will be assisted by its sponsor Lufthansa.

Frequent Flyers in the Brussels Airlines Privilege programme will be able to collect and redeem miles on all other Star Alliance member carriers.

Air India, Continental Airlines and TAM have also been announced as future members.

Meanwhile, Star Alliance has reported year-on-year revenue increase of 12.5% for its members, despite the global economic crisis.

In flown revenue terms, this represents a rise from Ã¢'š~¬2.4 billion to Ã¢'š~¬2.7 billion.

At the same time the number of agreements grew by 3% to 97.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœThe results for Star Alliance Corporate Plus prove that our strategy of targeted growth Ã¢â¬' concentrating on the right accounts rather than just focusing on growing the number of contracts Ã¢â¬' has paid off,Ã¢â¬~ said CEO Jaan Albrecht.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœWith this solid corporate contract base we are well placed to quickly adapt to the changing travel needs of corporate customers, during a time when we all face a more challenging economic climate.Ã¢â¬~

Star Alliance Corporate Plus is targeted at international blue chip customers with global or regionally managed travel programmes.

Corporations or their travel management companies can contact the sales teams of any Star Alliance member carrier to devise a programme taking in the collective networt, allowing them to book and manage corporate travel more seamlessly.

By Bev Fearis