News
Star Alliance eyes new tier, Goh appointed CEO
June 10th 2016
“We’ve been looking at it for several years and we’ve just had a discussion about it this morning with the [Star] CEOs. They’ve given us guidelines and we’re going that way to refine and sharpen the focus of what we’re talking about. Read More » So don’t be surprised if you see a new tier eventually,” incoming Star Alliance CEO, Jeffrey Goh, told Orient Aviation on the sidelines of the Star Alliance chief executive board (CEB) meeting in Zurich last weekend. Goh will replace Mark Schwab from January 1.
The CEB was hosted by SWISS, with the flag carrier’s celebration of its tenth anniversary as a Star Alliance fellow chosen to announce it would upgrade another five Bombardier CS100 orders to the larger CS300 variant and would likely do the same for another five, the carrier's CEO, Thomas Kluehr, said. SWISS is the launch customer of the much delayed Bombardier jet.
In 2009 SWISS placed a firm order for 30 CS100 jets and converted ten of those to the larger CS300 variant last year. Now it has 15 CS300s and ten CS100s on firm order. Kluehr said SWISS would decide "relatively soon" whether to upgrade the remaining five.
The CS100 performed its first passenger flight last Friday from Dublin to Zurich. The special flight brought Star Alliance’s and Bombardier’s top executives from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) annual general meeting to the CEB. Orient Aviation was a guest on the flight.
