A highlight in the social calendar for the travel industry is the Star Alliance Christmas lunch. This year, the Star Alliance event was in a five-star venue – the luxurious setting of Dublin’s Shelbourne Hotel, synonymous with Christmas in the capital.
United Airlines
Martina Coogan, Country Sales Manager for Ireland welcomed guests from across the country including ITTN’s Sharon Jordan.
Martina expressed her thanks to both airport partners in Ireland, Shannon Airport and Dublin Airport for their support during a challenging year for the aviation industry. United Airlines recently shared the news that Shannon to Chicago is back. From next summer United Airlines will have a Shannon – Chicago service and a Shannon – Newark/New York service. From Dublin, the airline will have a double daily service to New York, and both Chicago and Washington services too. These 3 hubs allow for connectivity to 200 destinations.
Dublin Airport
Edel Redmond, Dublin Airport, welcomed all her Star Alliance partners particularly Mohamed Mostafa from Egypt Air who are a new partner to the alliance in Ireland this year.
Egypt Air
Egypt Air welcomed the first-ever direct route between Dublin and Cairo this year. This new service operates 4 times per week (Tue, Thurs, Sat, Sun) year-round, on an A320neo aircraft and features 16 business class seats and 126 economy seats. All seats feature inflight entertainment systems and meals are provided.
Shannon Airport
Declan Power, Shannon Airport, welcomed everyone with the news that they have 16 new destinations for 2023 and Shannon will exceed 2019 numbers including routes with United Airlines to Newark/New York and Chicago.
Star Alliance
Star Alliance, the world’s first global airline celebrates 25 years in business this July. Created in May 1997, its founding members were United Airlines, Lufthansa, Air Canada, Thai Airways International, and Scandinavian Airlines. 25 years later, Star Alliance has 26 member airlines from six continents, boasting a collective fleet size of 5,033 aircraft!
It was named the World’s Leading Airline Alliance at the World Travel Awards for the third consecutive year. This was an extra special reason to celebrate given Star Alliance is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Star Alliance has in excess of 400,000 employees across the network “delivering safe and seamless travel” to customers across the globe. Going forward, technology is expected to play a large part in its future. Their new tagline is “Together, Better, Connected”.
Air Canada
Bláithín O’Donnell, Air Canada, shared that the 2019 schedule is back. October 1st of 2022 saw all remaining restrictions on access to Canada lifted.
ANA & Star Alliance
Julie Murphy was in attendance in her capacity on the Star Alliance Country Steering Committee along with Jane Reeves (Star Alliance Coordinator, UK & Ireland). Julie is ANA Country Sales Manager (UK & Ireland) with our Irish representative for ANA, Alan Sparling (ASM Ireland).
Dozens of members of the Irish travel trade attended alongside Star Alliance partners including Ethiopian Airlines, Aegean Airlines, Turkish Airlines and TAP.
