TAM Airlines of Brazil today was inducted into the Star Alliance adding to existing members like United Airlines, US Airways, Lufthansa and their family of airline partners.  Just last week, TAM entered into frequent flyer cooperation with Lufthansa owned bmi and Austrian Airlines in an effort to expand cooperation and integration with the global airline [...]

Now that bmi and Austrian Airlines are solidly in the Lufthansa family of airlines, TAM Airlines of Brazil  has expanded their code sharing agreement with the European airlines to include Frequent Flyer cooperation.  Now, passengers can earn and redeem miles on each others flights for their preferred program. 

This agreement could pave the way for TAM [...]

The European Union regulatory agency has authorized the purchase of Austrian Airlines by Lufthansa today.  There are conditions that have been agreed upon that Lufthansa must abide by to alleviate some competitive concerns primarily the directive to give up slots in Vienna to German destinations. 

This agreement makes Lufthansa the leader in European airlines by far.  [...]

The Star Alliance airline partnering group has continued to fare well and expanded its roster of members in recent years.  I wanted to take a look at the current members since Continental Airlines was just granted regulatory permission to join, making it the third US airline to be a Star Alliance member.  Their web site [...]

European regulators in Brussels today announced that Lufthansa Airlines of Germany has not convinced them that their acquisition of Austrian Airlines would not hurt competition on select routes between Germany and Austria. 

Lufthansa had to allay similar fears just last month when EU regulators were wary of the then proposed Lufthansa takeover of Brussel’s Airlines.  This [...]