The Atlantic Excellence was a trans-Atlantic airline alliance between Swissair, Delta Air Lines, Sabena and Austrian Airlines that was formed in 1997 and disbanded in 1999-2000. The dissolution of the code share agreement came soon after an announcement by Delta Air Lines that it was starting cooperative arrangements with Air France which led into the formation of the SkyTeam alliance. SAirGroup had held negotiations with American Airlines about extending their cooperative arrangements, with both Swissair and Sabena intending to commence code-share services on North Atlantic routes with American Airlines which led into Qualiflyer.
Delta Air Lines is one of the major airlines of the United States and a legacy carrier headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The United States' oldest operating airline and the seventh-oldest operating worldwide, Delta along with its subsidiaries and regional affiliates, including Delta Connection, operates 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. As of the end of 2022, it had 90,000 employees.
Aerovías de México, S.A. de C.V. operating as Aeroméxico, is the flag carrier of Mexico, based in Mexico City. It operates scheduled services to more than 90 destinations in Mexico; North, South and Central America; the Caribbean, Europe, and Asia. Its main base and hub is located in Mexico City, with secondary hubs in Guadalajara and Monterrey. The headquarters is in the Torre MAPFRE on Paseo de la Reforma.
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.
Swiss International Air Lines AG, stylized as SWISS, is the flag carrier of Switzerland and a subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group, as well as a Star Alliance member. It operates scheduled services in Europe and to North America, South America, Africa and Asia. Zurich Airport serves as its main hub and Geneva Airport as its secondary hub.
The Societé anonyme belge d'Exploitation de la Navigation aérienne, better known by the acronym Sabena or SABENA, was the national airline of Belgium from 1923 to 2001, with its base at Brussels Airport. After its bankruptcy in 2001, SN Brussels Airlines was formed through a takeover of former subsidiary Delta Air Transport and took over part of Sabena's assets in February 2002. SN Brussels Airlines merged with Virgin Express in 2007 to form Brussels Airlines. The airline's corporate headquarters were located in the Sabena House on the grounds of Brussels Airport in Zaventem.
Swissair was the national airline of Switzerland between its founding in 1931 and bankruptcy in 2002.
Atlantic Southeast Airlines (ASA) was a regional airline in the United States based in the A-Tech Center in College Park, Georgia, flying to 144 destinations as a Delta Connection carrier on behalf of Delta Air Lines via a code sharing agreement and, as of February 2010, commenced service as a United Express carrier on behalf of United Airlines via a separate code sharing agreement. It was a wholly owned subsidiary of SkyWest, Inc. ASA operated nearly 900 flights each day. Its main hub was located at Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) which is also a hub for Delta. After a 2010 merger with ExpressJet, ASA adopted the ExpressJet name and branding in 2011.
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, the first two being Star Alliance and Oneworld, respectively. Its annual passenger count is 437 million customers (2023), the second largest of the three major alliances. As of January 2024, SkyTeam consists of 19 active carriers from five continents and operates with the slogan "Caring more about you". It also operates a cargo alliance named SkyTeam Cargo, which partners ten carriers, all of them SkyTeam members. Its centralised management team, SkyTeam Central, is based in Amstelveen, Netherlands.
Air France–KLM S.A., also known as Air France–KLM Group, is a French airline holding company with its headquarters in the rue du Cirque, Paris. The group’s three major brands are Air France, KLM and Transavia. Air France–KLM is the result of the merger in 2004 between Air France and KLM. Both Air France and KLM are members of the SkyTeam airline alliance. The group's main hubs are Paris–Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris Orly Airport and Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. Air France–KLM Airlines transported 83 million passengers in 2022.
Société Belge des Transports par Air SA, known by its short form Sobelair, was a Belgian charter airline from that operated from 1946 to 2004. It was headquartered in Brussels and operated mostly non-scheduled passenger and cargo flights out of Brussels Airport.
Air Alps,, was an Austrian regional airline based in Innsbruck.
Wings Alliance was the working name of a proposed airline alliance to be anchored by the American carriers Northwest Airlines and Continental Airlines of USA with the European flag carriers KLM of the Netherlands and Italy's Alitalia. Although these airlines cooperated with one another through code-sharing and frequent flyer program coordination, no formal association was ever announced. It was rendered superfluous in September 2004 when most of its participants joined the SkyTeam alliance.
Austrian Airlines AG, often shortened to Austrian or AUA, is the flag carrier of Austria and a subsidiary of Lufthansa, the flag carrier of the Federal Republic of Germany. The airline is headquartered on the grounds of Vienna International Airport in Schwechat where it also maintains its hub. As of July 2016, the airline flew to six domestic and more than 120 international year-round and seasonal destinations in 55 countries and is a member of the Star Alliance.
Qualiflyer was a frequent-flyer program and, to some extent, an airline alliance created in April 1992 by Austrian Airlines, Crossair and Swissair. When Swissair began acquiring stakes in other European airlines in 1998, Qualiflyer was extended to become their frequent flyer programs as well. This spawned the alliance known as The Qualiflyer Group. With the failure of Swissair in 2002, the group dissolved along with the program and a company was formed to give each former member airline an individual frequent-flyer program.
Alcazar was a 1993 proposal to merge Austrian Airlines, KLM, Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS), and Swissair to create Symphony, which would have been Europe's largest airline.
Philippe Bruggisser is a Swiss manager in the airline industry. In 1996 and 2000/01 he was Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Swissair and President of the SAir Group Executive Committee in the period from 1997 to 2001. The growth strategy pursued by him, which had aimed at establishing an own aviation alliance was largely responsible for the bankruptcy of Swissair in October 2001.
Delta Air Lines is a major American airline. The company's history began with the world's first aerial crop dusting operation called Huff Daland Dusters Inc., founded in 1925 in Macon, Georgia to combat the boll weevil infestation of cotton crops. C.E. Woolman, general manager and later Delta's first CEO, led a group of investors to acquire the company's assets. Delta Air Service was incorporated on December 3, 1928, and named after the Mississippi Delta region.
Delta Connection is a brand name for Delta Air Lines, under which a number of individually owned regional airlines primarily operate short- and medium-haul routes. Mainline major air carriers often use regional airlines to operate services via code sharing agreements in order to increase frequencies in addition to serving routes that would not sustain larger aircraft as well as for other competitive or operational reasons.
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