Bangkok--Dec 16--STAR ALLIANCE
The Six member airlines of Star Alliance to day announced that they have created a focused management team to implement the five-year business plan approved by the airlines' presidents at their recent meeting in rio de Janeiro.
The Alliance, which comprises some of the world's most renowned air carriers, will now be lead on a day-to-day basis by a core group of executives, who were hand picked by the airline presidents. The newly formed Alliance Management Board, which held its first meeting last week in Chicago, wil be chaired by Friedel Roedig of Lufthansa. The deputy chair will be Bruce Harris of United Airlines. (Biographic profiles are attached.)
The other core members of the management board are key individuals who wil be responsible for specific areas of starategic importance to Star Alliance. These are the areas which are of the most importance to the travelling public. Ross MacCormack of Air Canada will be responsible for development of the Global Network, including regulatory issues. Per Stendebakken of SAS-Scandinavian Airlines will be responsible for ensuring Seamless Service and Product Development. Bruce Parker of United will be reponsible for all issues related to Information Technology and Automation. The executive responsible for sales strategy, marketing communications and the coordination of frequent flyer programs will be announced in the near future.
"Bringing together airline organizations that span the globe is very complex," said Mr.Roedig. "Over the past two years, numerous working groups with representation from each of the Star Alliance members have worked closely together to set up the world's most comprehensive and customer-oriented airline network. They spent their time to define the issues and develop ways to tackle them. Now that this groundwork is in place and customers are known to appreciate the benefits of Star Alliance, the time of the purely committee-based organization is over. We are ready to accelerate the process. We are clearly ahead of the competition, and we intend to maintain that lead."
Star Alliance currently comprises Air Canada, Lufthansa German Airlines, SAS-Scandinavian Airlines, Thai Airways International, United Airlines and VARIG Brazilian Airlines. Air New Zealand, Ansett Australia and Japan's All Nippon Airways have announced plans to join Star Alliance next year, and today have "observer" status with the organization. End.