Star Alliance CEO on Improving Customer Experience, Lounges and Growing the Network

It’s been a rough year for Star Alliance membership. It lost SAS to SkyTeam and now it’s set to lose Asiana after its merger with Korean Air was approved. 

But it’s still the largest airline alliance in the industry, ahead of SkyTeam and Oneworld. Star Alliance members include United Airlines, Air Canada, Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines.

Skift spoke with Star Alliance CEO Theo Panagiotoulias about the alliance’s growth plans and strategy for 2025. Here are four takeaways from our interview.

For Panagiotoulias his biggest priority as Star Alliance’s chief executive was continuing to improve the customer experience from booking to stepping foot on a plane. 

“There are so many pain points on journeys for travelers where we see it as an opportunity to leverage the f