SkyTeam, a global airline alliance, has been named ‘Alliance of the Year’ in this year’s Air Transport Awards held recently in Montreal, Canada.

It is the third time SkyTeam has been ranked as the number one alliance and the accolade comes in the same month that SkyTeam officially welcomed new member Virgin Atlantic.

Over the last 12 months, SkyTeam has established itself as a driving force for greener air travel, having launched The Sustainable Flight Challenge in May 2022. As well as helping customers to travel more sustainably, the alliance’s ongoing focus on technology continues to make travel more seamless, while customers have two new global airport lounges to enjoy in Santiago de Chile and São Paulo. SkyTeam is also the first alliance to have unanimously committed to IATA’s 25by2025 initiative to help increase gender diversity in the aviation industry.

Announcing SkyTeam as Alliance of the Year, Dr Kostas Iatrou, Director General of the Air Transport Organization said: “SkyTeam is taking a holistic approach to global travel, where its commitment to a seamless customer experience is matched by a commitment to caring for the planet. The judges were also impressed by SkyTeam’s work to increase gender diversity in the aviation industry through its RISE Leadership program and alliance-wide participation in IATA’s 25by2025 initiative.”

SkyTeam CEO and Managing Director, Patrick Roux, said: “Across our global network, SkyTeam people work hard day in, day out to deliver a more seamless customer experience - from SkyPriority airport services to new lounges in São Paulo and Santiago de Chile. And as well as a focus on transforming the travel experience through technology, we are working to make customers’ travel with SkyTeam more sustainable through the Sustainable Flight Challenge which is driving new innovations and ways of working to create a greener future for our industry.”

Launched in May 2022, The Sustainable Flight Challenge is an industry-first initiative that brings global airlines together in a shared mission to develop new ideas and innovations to make air travel greener. The second challenge takes off in May 2023 and has been extended to ‘friends & family’ airlines close to SkyTeam. Participating flights will be evaluated against set criteria by an independent, diverse panel of industry experts.

Kim Thomson, Publishing Director at TTN Middle East, spoke with SkyTeam CEO and Managing Director Patirk Roux at the recently concluded ITB Berlin.

Excerpts from the interview:

I see that you have in SkyTeam a couple of Middle East airlines, are you looking at other partnerships in our region?
We are looking at everything – and anything is possible.  We have Saudia as well as otehr Middle East carriers who are code sharing some of our partners.  For example, Etihad code shares with 11 of our partners.  

Can you tell me more about your Sustainability Competition?  
We  have several categories – we have the most fuel reductions, we have less plastic on board – this kind of things, as we also have more use of sustainable aviation fuel.  And the other important category is the adoption of sustainability measure. 

Your SkyTeam has dedicated lounges.  You mentioned you have  five of these.  Do  these  compete with your airline partner lounges?
It is an addition to the airline lounges.  The rule with SkyTeam is that members can use each of the partner lounges at their homebase.  In those airports where there aren’t lounges of some of our members, like Sydney, Dubai, St Polo we have lounges for our members. – TradeArabia News Service