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.
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).
Aegean Airlines S.A. (Greek: Αεροπορία Αιγαίου Α.Ε., Aeroporía Aigaíou pronounced [aeropoˈria eˈʝeu]) is the flag carrier of Greece and the largest Greek airline by total number of passengers carried, by number of destinations served, and by fleet size. A Star Alliance member since June 2010, it operates scheduled and charter services from Athens and Thessaloniki to other major Greek, European and Middle Eastern destinations. Its main hubs are Athens International Airport in Athens, Macedonia International Airport in Thessaloniki and Larnaca International Airport in Cyprus. It also uses other Greek airports as bases, some of which are seasonal. It has its head office in Athens International Airport, building 57.
On 21 October 2012, Aegean Airlines announced that it had struck a deal to acquire Olympic Air, and the buyout was approved by the European Commission a year later, on 9 October 2013. Both carriers continue to operate under separate brands. In addition, Aegean Airlines participated in the final stages of the tender for the privatization of Cyprus Airways, the national carrier of Cyprus. Following the bankruptcy of Cyprus Airways, Aegean Airlines established a hub at Larnaca Airport, thus initiating scheduled flights to and from the island to various destinations and filling the service gap created by the services termination of Cyprus Airways.
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.
Turkish Airlines (Turkish: Türk Hava Yolları), or legally Türk Hava Yolları Anonim Ortaklığı, is the flag carrier of Turkey. As of June 2024, it operates scheduled services to 352 destinations (including cargo) in Europe, Asia, Oceania, Africa, and the Americas. The airline serves more destinations non-stop from a single airport than any other airline in the world and flies to 131 countries, more than any other airline. With an operational fleet of 24 cargo aircraft, the airline's cargo division Turkish Cargo serves 82 destinations. The airline also owns a low-cost subsidiary, AJet.
The airline's corporate headquarters are on the grounds of Atatürk Airport in Yeşilköy, Bakırköy, Istanbul. The airline's main base is Istanbul Airport in Arnavutköy. It has been a member of the Star Alliance network since 1 April 2008.
An airline hub or hub airport is an airport used by one or more airlines to concentrate passenger traffic and flight operations. Hubs serve as transfer (or stop-over) points to help get passengers to their final destination. It is part of the hub-and-spoke system. An airline may operate flights from several non-hub (spoke) cities to the hub airport, and passengers traveling between spoke cities connect through the hub. This paradigm creates economies of scale that allow an airline to serve (via an intermediate connection) city-pairs that could otherwise not be economically served on a non-stop basis. This system contrasts with the point-to-point model, in which there are no hubs and nonstop flights are instead offered between spoke cities. Hub airports also serve origin and destination (O&D) traffic.
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.
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).
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.
Deutsche Lufthansa AG (German pronunciation: [ˌdɔʏtʃə ˈlʊfthanzaː ʔaːˈɡeː] ), trading as the Lufthansa Group, is a German aviation group. Its major and founding subsidiary airline Lufthansa German Airlines, branded as Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. It ranks second in Europe by passengers carried, as well as largest in Europe and fourth largest in the world by revenue. Lufthansa Airlines is also one of the five founding members of Star Alliance, which is the world's largest airline alliance, formed in 1997.Lufthansa was founded in 1953 and commenced operations in April 1955.
Besides operating flights under its own brand Lufthansa Airlines, the Lufthansa Group also owns several other airlines, including Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Discover Airlines, Eurowings, ITA Airways and Swiss International Air Lines. The group also owns several aviation-related companies, including Global Load Control, Lufthansa Consulting, Lufthansa Flight Training, Lufthansa Systems and Lufthansa Technik.