Press Release 2004

Adria Airways and Croatia Airlines will join Star Alliance as regional members on December 15, 2004 
 
At a ceremony held in Frankfurt, Germany today, both Adria Airways and Croatia Airlines signed contracts which will see both carriers become regional members of the Star Alliance network as of December 15, 2004.  With the addition of these two carriers, Star Alliance, the airline network for Earth™, will further enhance the quality of its network, especially to and from south-eastern Europe, strengthening the alliance’s role as the leading airline alliance to the new and future EU member countries. Star Alliance already offers more than 1750 weekly flights to 21 destinations in the ten countries which joined the EU in May of this year.

More importantly, customers in both Adria Airways’ and Croatia Airlines’ respective home markets will now benefit from improved access to the world-wide Star Alliance network. Moreover, both airlines’ passengers will benefit from the customer proposition offered by the Star Alliance member carriers, such as through check-in, status recognition, lounge access, frequent flyer accrual and redemption.

“With Adria Airways and Croatia Airlines as regional members, we are once again providing more choice for our travellers, by extending the reach of our customer benefits to the network of these two carriers”, said Jaan Albrecht, Star Alliance CEO.

Regional member carriers, aside from meeting certain requirements, must be sponsored by an existing member to achieve a quick and easy integration. The sponsoring airline will represent the regional member within the alliance. In the case of Adria Airways and Croatia Airlines, their long-standing partner Lufthansa has assumed this responsibility. For example, Lufthansa played a key role in assisting both Adria Airways and Croatia Airlines in transferring their respective frequent flyer programmes to Lufthansa’s Miles & More. This was an essential step in order to ensure that the Star Alliance loyalty benefits could be delivered. Moreover, Lufthansa is also closely working with the airport authorities in both Croatia and Slovenia in order to ensure that through check-in, a major benefit and promise to the customer can be provided.

"We are glad and proud that after very successful and long-standing bilateral relationships with both Adria Airways and Croatia Airlines we will now have a fruitful multilateral relationship with them within the Star Alliance network. This is good news for the travellers in these expanding markets: The region will be more closely linked with Star Alliance’s global route network", said Wolfgang Mayrhuber, Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO of Deutsche Lufthansa AG. “Our guests from all over the world can reach these attractive markets and exciting destinations much easier now. Passengers from and to the region will benefit from seamless travel and mileage opportunities”, he added.

Adria Airways, the Slovenian national airline, has a wealth of experience spanning 43 years in charter and scheduled air traffic. Today the majority of Adria's business is in scheduled flights, of which 180 per week link Ljubljana with more than 20 mainly European destinations.

“As a Star Alliance regional member, we are now in a position to offer our customers a network which spans the globe, including access to harmonised benefits world-wide. This truly improves the competitive position of our company", said Dr. Branko Lucovnik, Adria Airways President.

Croatia Airlines, the national carrier of Croatia, has been operating under its present name since 1990. Again, its business focus is scheduled traffic, with its fleet of eleven aircraft, currently serving 26 European destinations with 430 weekly flights.

“Becoming a regional member in Star Alliance is testament to the successful development of our young airline, especially in this year when we celebrate our company’s 15th anniversary. We are convinced that our customers will very quickly come to appreciate the added value which our alliance membership brings to their travel requirements,” said Ivan Mišeti?, Croatia Airlines’ President & CEO.

Star Alliance was established in 1997 as the first truly global airline alliance to offer customers global reach and a smooth travel experience. The members are Air Canada, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Austrian, bmi, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Spanair, Thai Airways International, United, US Airways and VARIG Brazilian Airlines. The member carriers offer more than 14,000 daily flights, serving 755 destinations in 133 countries.

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