SKYTEAM: Reaching out the Sky

Since its founding in 2000, SkyTeam has more than tripled its membership, doubled flights and nearly doubled destinations to offer customers easier connections across all continents.

Deeper cooperation

At its founding in 2000 by Aeroméxico, Air France, Delta Air Lines and Korean Air, SkyTeam has grown to 13 members in 2010, with the inclusion of Vietnam Airlines on June 10 and Romanian carrier TAROM on June 25. SkyTeam carriers today offer approximately 13,000 daily flights to 898 destinations in 169 countries, up from 6,402 daily flights to 451 destinations in 98 countries at its inception.

SkyTeam Governing Board Chairman Leo Van Wijk said: “During the last 10 years, SkyTeam’s experience with ground breaking mergers and joint ventures has deepened the cooperation among our members, giving our customers access to more markets at lower fares. As we look back at SkyTeam’s steady growth of members, all are focusing on creating global coverage by linking complementary networks, flying from a few of the best hubs in Europe, the US, Asia and Africa. Today we offer our customers more destinations, more frequencies and more and better connectivity.”

He added “As deregulation and Open Skies agreements opened opportunities for more effective business alignment, SkyTeam emerged as a way for airlines to offer customers more connections across the globe through alliances rather than complex intercontinental mergers. And our growth will continue.”

Growth in Asia

During the Governing Board Meeting, China Eastern signed an Adherence Agreement with SkyTeam, formally starting its process of joining the alliance. SkyTeam’s Managing Director, Mr Marie-Joseph Malé, outlined the value of a second Chinese member in the alliance: “Asia is a very important market for SkyTeam, and we are well on track to strengthen our offering in this fast-growing part of the world. With our newest member Vietnam Airlines, and China Eastern joining us in the future, we will offer our customers 10 % more daily flights than today. Combined with China Southern and Korean Air, these four Asian carriers will further strengthen SkyTeam’s presence in Asia and position us for future growth. And we still intend to add more Asian carriers to our group, thus firmly consolidating SkyTeam as the alliance for Asia.”

Alliance expansion

SkyTeam is also growing its presence in other regions of the world, such as Latin America, Southeast Asia and India. “Over the past decade, SkyTeam has played a vital role in increesing the number of destinations,” said Richard Anderson, CEO of Delta Air Lines, and host of the SkyTeam Governing Board in New York. “This will continue as SkyTeam pursues a strategy of valuable growth by recruiting even more members that offer access to new regions.”

SkyTeam’s 10th anniversary also marks the introduction of a new membership programme, to better match with the alliances’ growth ambition. The former Associate Airline program served carriers, including current partners of alliance members, who were interested in alliance benefits but did not yet meet all strategic criteria necessary to become full SkyTeam members. It allowed SkyTeam to build a broader network and provide customers with access to additional regions of the world. With a higher degree of maturity reached in alliance development and integration, SkyTeam now fully integrates all members into the alliance. With this reclassification, Air Europa, Kenya Airways and new member TAROM will now also be referred to as member airlines. This change will reinforce the cohesion among the partner airlines. For the customer, there will be no differences.

Tags: SkyTeam