News
Star becomes first alliance to partner with LCCs
December 11th 2015
Star Alliance will become the first global airline alliance to partner with low-cost carriers (LCCs). Dubbed the “Connecting Partner Model”, South Africa’s Mango Airlines, a subsidiary of South African Airways (SAA) under the leadership of chief executive, Nico Bezuidenhout, Read More » will become the first LCC to integrate into the Star network from “the second or third quarter 2016”, offering its customers a more seamless travel experience and extending frequent flyer benefits, including lounge access, award miles accrual, priority boarding and complimentary checked baggage.
“With this innovative concept, we are breaking new ground. We see a definite trend of convergence between the ‘traditional full service’ and ‘low-cost’ business models in the airline industry,” said Mark Schwab, Star Alliance chief. “At the same time, our customers are telling us they need access to markets where we do not yet provide ideal coverage. In many cases, network carriers are not in a position to fill this gap so working with future Connecting Partners will allow us to provide an extended network to our travellers.”
Connecting Partners will be carefully assessed for their fit into the existing Star network. While the selected carriers need to comply and adhere to the operating standards required by Star, they will not become a member of the 28-member alliance, Schwab and Bezuidenhout explained. Bezuidenhout said the benefits for Star and Mango were mutual, as they would “feed each other customers they wouldn’t normally have”. Bezuidenhout reaffirmed his commitment to “making sure Star Alliance does not add to our cost base as this would eventually reflect in the ticket price”.
Schwab said the alliance was evaluating other LCCs to join its Connecting Partners model, with “preference given to extended members of the family”, meaning subsidiaries of existing fully fledged alliance members, such as Singapore’s Scoot, Thai Airways International’s (THAI’s) Thai Smile and Nok Air, or Lufthansa’s Eurowings, though nothing has been firmed up yet. Schwab did, however, sternly confirm that he was not in discussions with Europe’s Ryanair or EasyJet.
