Star Alliance to offer more than 500 lounges worldwide

Star Alliance@ to offer more than 500 lounges worldwide SINGAPORE, April 7, 2000 - The Star Alliance airlines, in their constant quest to make travelling easier by offering new benefits to their customers, will soon be able to welcome their elite-status frequent flyers to more than 500 airport lounges around the world - thus providing their customers twice as many lounges as any other airline alliance. At a ceremony in Singapore today officially welcoming Singapore Airlines th as the 11 member of the alliance, the Star Alliance carriers announced that some 250 lounges operated by outside parties for the member airlines will be opened to all Star Alliance Gold members. Until now, these so-called third-party contract lounges have been available only for customers of the contracting airline. The 250 third-party contract lounges are in addition to a similar number of carrier-operated airport lounges which already welcome Star Alliance customers all across the alliance network. "Our lounge offering will be further expanded by the addition of facilities operated by new members as they enter the alliance," said Per Stendebakken, Star Alliance Vice President, Product and Service Development. "Star Alliance Gold members will soon be able to enjoy the benefit of having access to more than 500 lounges from San Francisco in the west to Seoul in the east, from Helsinki in the north to Christchurch in the south. No other airline alliance can claim this number of lounges," Mr. Stendebakken added. As of April 7, the Star Alliance members are: Air Canada, Air New Zealand, All Nippon Airways, Ansett Australia, Austrian Airlines Group (which comprises Austrian Airlines, Lauda Air and Tyrolean Airways), Lufthansa German Airlines, Scandinavian Airlines System - SAS, Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways International, United Airlines and VARIG Brazilian Airlines. Later this year, Mexicana Airlines and British Midland Airways are scheduled to join Star Alliance. With the addition of the new members, the Star Alliance network will cover more than 800 destinations in 130 countries. SAS CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS ------------------------------------------------------------ Please visit http://www.bit.se for further information The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/04/07/20000407BIT00490/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/04/07/20000407BIT00490/bit0002.pdf