Press Releases 2007

Star Alliance’s website enhanced: 2 versions of the Chinese language, plus further content added

Star Alliance, the Way the Earth connects, has added two Chinese language versions and enhanced the general content of its www.staralliance.com website.“Simplified Chinese”, primarily targeting mainland China and “Traditional Chinese”, mainly for Hong Kong and Taiwan, are now available to the growing number of Chinese-speaking customers. This improvement has been implemented just under a year after the alliance’s internet presence was completely revamped and made available in seven languages – English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish.

“By adding two versions of Chinese prior to welcoming our two Chinese member airlines, we are now able to satisfy the growing customer demand for Asian languages. The use of the Chinese language sites will further increase, when Air China and Shanghai Airlines join Star Alliance in December this year,” said Christina Fischer, Director E-Services and Distribution, Star Alliance.

With content now available in four Asian languages, www.staralliance.com is the only airline alliance site to offer this amount of choice. Additionally customers from Japan and Korea can now access local country information websites - www.staralliance.jp and www.staralliance.co.kr – directly from the Star Alliance main website.

Moreover, information on Star Alliance’s environmental initiative – Biosphere Connections, as well as material on the collocation projects at airports (Move under one Roof) and the Star Alliance Connection Centres has been added to the website. The Flight Search functionality and the Round the World Mileage Calculator have also been improved and additional features will be added in the very near future.

Star Alliance re-launched its website with a new look and feel coupled with a fresher and more modern design in December 2006. The new layout has the site structured into three different lobbies, one for travellers, one for business partners and one for the media and also includes a selection of new online tools and services for the traveller.

About Star Alliance
The Star Alliance network was established in 1997 as the first truly global airline alliance to offer customers worldwide reach and a smooth travel experience. Star Alliance was voted Best Airline Alliance by Business Traveller Magazine in 2003, 2006 and 2007 and by Skytrax in 2003, 2005 and 2007. The members are Air Canada, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Austrian, bmi, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, Spanair, SWISS, TAP Portugal, THAI, United and US Airways. Regional member carriers Adria Airways (Slovenia), Blue1 (Finland) and Croatia Airlines enhance the global network. Air China, Shanghai Airlines and Turkish Airlines have all been accepted as future members and are expected to join Star Alliance soon. Overall, the Star Alliance network offers more than 16,000 daily flights to 855 destinations in 155 countries.