Star Alliance is voted Best Alliance by customers after the three way competition with Oneworld and SkyTeam

		Star Alliance named Best Airline Alliance as SkyTeam moves into 2nd place and Oneworld in 3rd
	"Global survey ..... multi-national interviews ..... Global awards"

Star Alliance returned to winning ways, being named as the Best Airline Alliance in this major survey of airline passengers - specifically focussed amongst more frequent travellers.

Conducted every 2 years, the Survey asked respondents to rank each airline alliance under a single set of conditions - related to alliance product and service features and benefits. (See below).

Commenting on the results, Edward Plaisted (CEO of the Survey organisation, Skytrax) said ...

"each alliance is growing year by year by way of member airlines, and extent of global coverage they offer, and they are now much more familiar to air travellers than 4 or 5 years ago."

"The scale of benefits is also growing, and the most pronounced change that passengers seem to have noticed in the last year is the integration of airport service operations. More dedicated alliance check-in facilities are becoming available, and more experienced alliance members are now quite savvy when it comes to choosing the best airline lounge to use at certain airports."

"On the downside of course, it can mean interminable transfer distances around some airports if you make the mistake of arriving on a member airline of one alliance, and plan to use a different alliance member airline to depart! That is however the less likely scenario, since in these days of mileage hunting by some travellers, such trips will be few and far between."

"The scale of network coverage between the alliances is pretty impressive - Star Alliance offering a network of 855 destinations, SkyTeam some 744 destinations and oneworld nearly 700 destinations. "

"As hard as we try to direct the airline alliance survey in a specific format, we are aware that for some customers the nomination of a Best Alliance may be skewed by their personal experience of travel with a specific member airline - which is why we try to identify travellers that have tangible experience using other member airlines in an alliance."

SURVEY METHODOLOGY

Survey respondents were asked to rate the following alliance service and product aspects.

  Ease of collecting & using FFP miles across different airlines in the alliance
  Ease of contacting Alliance, and standards of Customer support
  Cross-member airport services, check-in, ticketing, transit etc
  Corporate branding for airline alliance in airport environments
  Ability to use airport lounges for different airlines in airline alliance
  Quality of lounge facilities available to alliance members
  Member recognition & assistance amongst alliance member airlines
  Consistency of Onboard seating product amongst member airlines
  Consistency of Onboard service between the member airlines
  Consistency of Inflight Entertainment facilities between member airlines
  Ability for top tier members to gain upgrades on flights
  Allocation of preferred seating for top tier alliance members



Interviewees were also asked to rate Alliance performance in the categories below.

  The alliance makes air travel more enjoyable
  Benefit from a wider network of flights as a member of this alliance
  The alliance membership can provide better value fares
  The alliance member airlines all try to meet expectations
  Likely to stay loyal to this airline alliance
  As the alliance expands, service standards get better




The Worlds Best Airline Alliance Survey is commissioned and conducted by Skytrax Research of London. No outside sponsorship or external influence is applied to any aspect of the Survey.

More than 88 different nationalities of survey respondents are represented in the final survey results.


Survey data was gathered using a range of input sources:

::  Online Customer Survey
::  Business Research Group Interviews
::  Customer Telephone Interviews
::  Selected Passenger Interviews



Additional research comprised back-up interviews, amongst a random, representative sample of Survey respondents. This research was to both verify survey interviews, and to gain respondent reasons for specific airline nominations.


Further enquiries should be directed to:

Mr Peter Miller
Marketing Director
SKYTRAX RESEARCH
E-mail: miller@airlinequality.com