SAA celebrates decade as member of Global Airline Network
South African Airways (SAA) is this month celebrating a decade as member of Star Alliance, the world’s longest serving and most experienced global airline alliance.
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SAA was the first African airline to join the global network in 2006, providing other alliance partners access to SAA’s extensive route network within South Africa and into the rest of the African continent.
According to the Chief Executive Officer of Star Alliance, Mr Mark Schwab; “South African Airways gave Star Alliance a first and strategic/prominent foothold in Africa, which today is recognised as one of the most significant growth markets for international trade and aviation.”
“We congratulate the airline on its 10 year anniversary as part of the Star Alliance family, thank its staff for serving Star Alliance customers well every day for a decade and look forward to continued fruitful co-operation in the years to come,” he added.
A spokesperson of SAA, Mr Tlali Tlali, said “Star Alliance members offer our customers the assurance that when they fly with SAA, or any of the member airlines, they fly with airlines that adhere to certain standards as part of their high value offering to the customers they serve.”
“Our decade long membership is a major achievement and the anniversary comes at a time where the Alliance has reached a high level of maturity. We remain focused on increasing our participation in the Alliance to ensure that we extract the fullest possible value from our membership for our airline and for our customers,” Mr Tlali said.
Customer benefits
Member airlines of the alliance, offer an agreed set of aligned customer benefits and products at defined quality standards across the entire network.
The member airlines’ success in satisfying their customers is measured on a regular basis, in part by the use of an on-line survey mailed to frequent flyers, calling for feedback on overall satisfaction of their travel experience, including on customer touch points such as boarding, departure, baggage handling, and other services.
“We constantly strive to improve on these touch points across our business, and welcome the Quality Initiative project by Star Alliance.
“The project continually analyses customer satisfaction regarding all products and services of Star Alliance along the travel experience (as well as the individual performance of each member airline) and customers’ fulfilment of the Star Alliance promise,” Mr Tlali explained.
Compliance requirements
In addition, there are other compliance requirements to ensure that SAA and other member carriers comply with various high and strict safety, maintenance, and passenger service standards, and other requirements set by the international regulatory organisations such as IATA.
Mr Tlali said “It is a matter of immense national pride that SAA remains a valued member of Star Alliance, maintaining exceptionally high international standards and contributing to the success of the Alliance”.
“Established as the first truly global airline network to offer worldwide reach, recognition, and seamless service to the international traveler, Star Alliance has grown to have a presence in more than 192 countries, serving 1, 330 airports with 18, 500 daily departures. This is such a compelling value proposition and a truly comprehensive offering to our customers,” he added.