Frankfurt: Star Alliance, which pioneered the global aviation alliance concept two decades ago, is shifting its strategic focus to stay relevant.
The club of 28 global airlines including Thai Airways International (THAI) is entering its third decade by embarking on a digital journey.
The alliance said that its original mission of growing a comprehensive global network for the 14-million-plus travellers connecting via its member carriers each year has largely matured.
Chief executive board chairman Pedro Heilbron said the focus on digital technologies mirrors the changing business landscape, as travellers' expectations have transformed.
"Access to instant information updates online from more or less anywhere has irrevocably changed the expectations of customers as they travel," said Mr Heilbron, also chief executive of Copa Airlines, Panama's flag carrier.
"Passengers want control over their journeys to be at their fingertips," he said. "That means not only having full access to a wealth of information, but also being able to personalise it to fit one's own particular requirements."
Providing such services to today's "digital" travellers on an alliance level is the central pillar of Star Alliance's new strategic focus, said Mr Heilbron.
Star Alliance, the largest among the world's three major airline clubs, is specifically targeting 20-year-olds with its digital experience shift.
"As a business we have to adapt. If we continuously focus on high-value international travellers -- your grey suits aged 45-55 -- then we're missing a very important segment of the market," said Jeffrey Goh, who took over as chief executive of Star Alliance in January.
But the alliance is not proactively seeking new airline members as before, said the two executives.
The Star Alliance network currently offers more than 18,400 daily flights to 1,300 airports in 191 countries.
The alliance's connectivity continues to expand as member carriers launch new routes and increase their frequencies.
Mr Goh said the group was not being complacent in regards to its current coalition size, and is welcome to entries from those parties which can offer value.
"We want to be selective (in bringing new members aboard)," he said. "First and foremost, value is our chief criteria -- what additional, unique destinations the members can bring. Those destinations being served by our airline members today will add very little value to us. It will simply add more competition and complexity to the alliance."
Mr Goh said there are only a few places in the world not served by Star Alliance airline members today, although there are big markets such as Russia and Mexico where the group has no member airline representation.
He said it would also be possible to have more than one airline member in a large country like India, for example, where Air India is already a member.
"We are constantly on the lookout. India and Brazil are big and fast growing markets," Mr Goh said. "We are constantly assessing whether one, two or even a third member will serve our purposes."
Meanwhile, the alliance has adopted the "Connecting Partner" concept as a means of boosting its network reach with the addition of local and regional airlines.
Launched in December 2015, the model allows airlines operated under the "low-cost" and "hybrid" airline models to be able to connect to the alliance network.
Juneyao, one of China's largest private carriers, became the first airline to join the alliance as a "connecting partner."
The Shanghai-based airline aims to open new routes to North America, Europe and Australia by 2020, viewing the alliance as a means of adding at least 700 new routes to its network.
MOVING UNDER ONE ROOF
The alliance will also keep pushing to have the operations of its member airlines clustered at single locations in airports.
"When we see the opportunities of new airports or terminals being considered and developed, we enter talks as early as possible," Mr Goh said. "Because once the plan is signed off on, it might already be too late to change it."
He said the alliance has a great deal of expertise to share with airports in order to help customers' journeys be as pleasant as possible.
Mr Goh said new airport development projects in Beijing and Istanbul, as well as the expansion of Suvarnabhumi airport, provide opportunities for the alliance to pursue its co-location strategy to enhance efficiency and passenger experience.
Meanwhile, he said the alliance and THAI are concerned that domestic flights at Suvarnabhumi, currently operating under the same roof as international ones, may be moved to a proposed second terminal which would be two kilometres away.
"Nowhere in the world would you place, at least for your home carrier, the domestic and international operations in two different terminals," Mr Goh said. "Your minimum connection time is going to increase considerably."
He said that such a move could undermine Bangkok's goal of becoming a regional air hub.
In March, executives of the alliance and THAI raised this issue with Airports of Thailand, which operates Suvarnabhumi.
Fourteen Star Alliance airline members, including the Thai flag carrier, operate at the airport.
USER-FRIENDLY TECHNOLOGIES
The IT hub infrastructure which the alliance has put in place in recent years has allowed for the better integration of back-end services between the member airlines.
With this now in place, the alliance can start building and offering digital applications.
The new IT hub infrastructure has already enabled the alliance to improve the reliability of such processes as through-check in for multi-carrier itineraries and fast crediting of accrued frequent flyer miles.
In another first, if miles somehow go missing, members in any Star Alliance frequent flyer programme (FFP) can now claim them online through their own FFP website, even when the miles were collected on another Star Alliance member carrier flight.
The baggage hub, the most recent IT hub project, went live at the end of 2016. The project facilitates baggage message transfers between member airlines, their ground handlers and the baggage handling systems at the airports.
This allows airlines to better steer baggage operations and to keep customers informed on the status of their luggage.
Once in place across the entire network, it will become easier to give customers updates on their baggage delivery status.
Using the existing IT Hub, Star Alliance has also introduced a new system which allows front line employees to better assist customers in case of irregularities.
Should their feeder flight be delayed, the connecting boarding pass information can now be accessed by the airline operating the feeder flight, thus enabling a faster and simpler rebooking process.