The Ethiopian Airlines is going to be fully integrated into Star Alliance, the largest airline alliance, in October. The process took over a year and 6.9 million dollars which has not been paid in full yet.
The airlines had to fulfil 83 criteria, including IT compliance, to earn full membership of the alliance.
Ethiopian is the third African airline to join the Star Alliance after South African Air (SAA) and Egypt Air.
Ethiopian is the third African airline to join the Star Alliance after South African Air (SAA) and Egypt Air.
Ethiopian uses SABER booking system, which needed to be connected with the central system of the Star Alliance headquarters, and with those of the 29 member carriers.
Some of the advantages of joining Star Alliance for Ethiopian is using the alliance’s network for selling seats on the same flights, giving passengers more departure times to choose from on a given route and easier connections and transfers between flights.
Requirements of Star Alliance membership include displaying the alliance’s logo and Ethiopia has set aside a B767 for that purpose. The B767 flies to destinations in Africa, Asia and Europe where most members of the alliance are located.
Star Alliance was founded in 1997 by five of the world's leading airlines: Air Canada, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Thai Airways International and United Airlines. Collectively its carriers make 21,200 daily flights to 1,185 destinations in 185 countries.
