SkyTeam is one of the world's three major airline alliances. Founded in June 2000, SkyTeam was the last of the three alliances to be formed, after Star Alliance and Oneworld. Its annual passenger count is 624 million customers (2024), the second largest of the three major alliances. As of May 2025, SkyTeam consists of 18 active carriers; it also operates a cargo alliance named SkyTeam Cargo, which partners with seven carriers, all SkyTeam members. Its centralised management team, SkyTeam Central, is based in Amstelveen, Netherlands.
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👉 SkyTeam in the context of Airline
An airline is a company that provides a regular service of air transportation for passengers or freight (cargo). Airlines use aircraft to supply these services. Many passenger airlines also carry cargo in the belly of their aircraft, while dedicated cargo airlines focus solely on freight transport. Generally, airline companies are recognized with an air operating certificate or license issued by a governmental aviation body. Airlines may be scheduled or charter operators.
Airline ownership has seen a shift from mostly personal ownership until the 1930s to government-ownership of major airlines from the 1940s to 1980s and back to large-scale privatization following the mid-1980s. Since the 1980s, there has been a trend of major airline mergers and the formation of partnerships or alliances for codeshare agreements, in which they both offer and operate the same flight. The largest alliances are Star Alliance, SkyTeam and Oneworld. Airline alliances coordinate their passenger service programs (such as lounges and frequent-flyer programs), offer special interline tickets and often engage in extensive codesharing (sometimes systemwide).
In this Dossier
- ⭐ Core Definition: SkyTeam
- 👉 SkyTeam in the context of Airline
- SkyTeam in the context of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol
- SkyTeam in the context of Charles de Gaulle Airport
- SkyTeam in the context of Star Alliance
- SkyTeam in the context of Airline alliance
- SkyTeam in the context of KLM
- SkyTeam in the context of Air France
- SkyTeam in the context of Delta Air Lines
- SkyTeam in the context of ITA Airways
SkyTeam in the context of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol
Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (IATA: AMS, ICAO: EHAM), known informally as Schiphol Airport (Dutch: Luchthaven Schiphol, pronounced [ˌlʏxtɦaːvə(n) ˈsxɪp(ɦ)ɔl; sxɪpˈɦɔl]), is the main international airport of the Netherlands, and is one of the major hubs for the SkyTeam airline alliance. It is located 9 kilometres (5.6 mi; 4.9 nmi) southwest of Amsterdam, in the municipality of Haarlemmermeer in the province of North Holland. It was the world's fifth busiest airport by international passenger traffic in 2024. With almost 72 million passengers in 2019, it is the third-busiest airport in Europe in terms of passenger volume and the busiest in Europe in terms of aircraft movements. With an annual cargo tonnage of 1.74 million, it is the 4th busiest in Europe. AMS covers a total area of 2,787 hectares (6,887 acres) of land. The airport is built on the single-terminal concept: one large terminal split into three departure halls.
Schiphol is the principal hub for KLM and its regional affiliate KLM Cityhopper as well as for Martinair. The airport also serves as an operating base for Corendon Dutch Airlines, easyJet, Transavia, TUI fly Netherlands, and Vueling.
SkyTeam in the context of Charles de Gaulle Airport
Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (IATA: CDG, ICAO: LFPG), also known as Roissy Airport, is the primary international airport serving Paris, the capital of France. The airport opened in 1974 and is located in Roissy-en-France, 23 km (14 mi) northeast of the city centre of Paris. It is named after World War II leader and French President Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970), whose initials form its IATA airport code.
Charles de Gaulle Airport serves as the principal hub for Air France and a destination for other legacy carriers (from Star Alliance, Oneworld and SkyTeam), as well as an operating base for easyJet and Norse Atlantic Airways. It is operated by Groupe ADP (Aéroports de Paris) under the brand Paris Aéroport.
SkyTeam in the context of Star Alliance
Star Alliance is an airline alliance headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany. Founded on 14 May 1997, it was the world's first global airline alliance. Star Alliance has 25 member airlines that operate a combined fleet of over 5,000 aircraft, serving more than 1,300 airports in 195 countries on more than 19,000 daily departures.
As of April 2024, it is the world's largest airline alliance by market share, holding 17.4 percent compared to 13.7 percent for SkyTeam and 11.9 percent for Oneworld.
SkyTeam in the context of Airline alliance
An airline alliance is an aviation industry arrangement between two or more airlines agreeing to cooperate on a substantial level. Alliances may provide marketing branding to facilitate travelers making inter-airline codeshare connections within countries. This branding may involve unified aircraft liveries of member aircraft.
In 2015, Star Alliance was the largest with 23% of total scheduled traffic in revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs)/revenue passenger miles (RPMs), followed by SkyTeam with 20.4% and Oneworld with 17.8%, leaving 38.8% for others. In 2019, by number of passengers, Star Alliance was leading 762 million, followed by SkyTeam (630 million) and Oneworld (535 million).
SkyTeam in the context of KLM
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, or simply KLM (an abbreviation for their official name Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij N.V. [ˈkoːnɪŋkləkə ˈlʏxtfaːrt ˌmaːtsxɑˈpɛi ˌɛnˈveː], lit. 'Royal Aviation Company'), is the flag carrier of the Netherlands. KLM’s headquarters are located in Amstelveen, with its hub at nearby Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. It is a subsidiary of the Air France–KLM group and a member of the SkyTeam airline alliance. Founded in 1919, KLM is the oldest operating airline still using its original name, having gone through significant changes in its ownership and legal structure over its history, including a period of majority government ownership. The company had a fleet of 110 aircraft (excluding subsidiaries) and 35,488 employees as of 2021. KLM operates scheduled passenger and cargo services to 145 destinations.
SkyTeam in the context of Air France
Air France (French pronunciation: [ɛːʁ fʁɑ̃s]; legally Société Air France, S.A.), stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France, and is headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. The airline is a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group and is one of the founding members of the SkyTeam airline alliance. As of 2013, Air France served 29 destinations in France and operates worldwide scheduled passenger and cargo services to 201 destinations in 78 countries (93 including overseas departments and territories of France) and also carried 46,803,000 passengers in 2019. The airline's global hub is at Charles de Gaulle Airport, with Orly Airport as the primary domestic hub. Air France's corporate headquarters, previously in Montparnasse, Paris, are located at the Roissypôle complex on the grounds of Charles de Gaulle Airport, north of Paris.
Tracing its origins back to the 1910s, Air France was formed on 30 August 1933 through the merger of five existing airlines in France. During the Cold War, from 1950 until 1990, it was one of the three main Allied scheduled airlines operating in Germany at West Berlin's Tempelhof and Tegel airports. In 1990, it acquired the operations of French domestic carrier Air Inter and international rival UTA – Union de Transports Aériens. It merged with KLM to form Air France-KLM in 2003.
SkyTeam in the context of Delta Air Lines
Delta Air Lines, Inc. is a major airline in the United States headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, operating nine hubs, with Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport being its largest in terms of total passengers and number of departures. With its regional subsidiaries and contractors operating under the brand name Delta Connection, Delta has over 5,400 flights daily and serves 325 destinations in 52 countries on six continents. Delta is a founding member of the SkyTeam airline alliance which helps to extend its global network. It is the second-oldest operating commercial airline in the U.S., having begun passenger operations after United.
Delta ranks first in revenue and brand value among the world's largest airlines, and second by number of passengers carried, passenger miles flown, and fleet size. Listed 70th on the Fortune 500 list, Delta has topped The Wall Street Journal's annual rankings of airlines in 2022, 2023, and 2024 and earned first place in the 2024 Readers’ Choice Awards for Best Airlines in the U.S. by Condé Nast Traveler.
SkyTeam in the context of ITA Airways
Italia Trasporto Aereo S.p.A. (pronounced [iˈtaːlja traˈspɔrto aˈɛːreo]), doing business as ITA Airways (pronounced [ˈiːta] EE-tah), is the flag carrier of Italy. It is owned by the government of Italy, via the Ministry of Economy and Finance, and Lufthansa Group.
The airline was founded in 2020 as a successor to the bankrupt Alitalia. The airline flies to over 70 scheduled domestic, European, and intercontinental destinations. Its main hub is the Rome Fiumicino Airport and a focus city is Milan Linate Airport. In 2025, ITA Airways announced that the airline will be ending its membership in SkyTeam to join Star Alliance in 2026, as part of the airline's integration into the Lufthansa Group.