Star Alliance Lounge to open at Charles de Gaulle Terminal 1

Star Alliance and Aeroports de Paris have signed an agreement which will see the construction of a Star Alliance Lounge in Terminal 1 at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle (CDG) Airport. Under this accord, which is part of the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the two parties in March 2005, Aeroports de Paris will select the space and be responsible for building the shell of the lounge, while Star Alliance will be in charge of the interior design and fitting as well as the day-to-day running of the facility.

The 800 square metre Star Alliance Lounge will be situated across two levels of the main terminal building and is scheduled to open in spring 2008. Once in operation, it will primarily accommodate First and Business Class as well as Star Alliance Gold Card customers travelling on those Star Alliance member carriers from Paris – CDG1 who do not have their own dedicated lounge facilities. It will be the Alliance’s fourth Lounge built in the Star Alliance design; the other three being located in Los Angeles, Nagoya and Zurich.

The Star Alliance-branded check-in areas in Halls 1 and 4 are conveniently located one level above the CDG VAL station at CDG 1, immediately to the left and right of the escalators leading up from the platform.

The CDG VAL is a free automated people-mover which now links Terminal 1 with car parks PR and PX, Terminal 3 / Roissypole / Local Train Station and Terminal 2 / TGV High Speed Rail Station. The CDG VAL runs every 4 minutes, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It is not only a great improvement for passengers wishing to connect to and from the trains to Paris, but has also simplified connecting between Terminals 1 and 2. The CDG VAL covers a distance of 3.5 kilometres in eight minutes, compared to 25 minutes needed by the former shuttle busses.

As the overall refurbishment of CDG Terminal 1 has progressed, Star Alliance has continued to implement its “Move under one Roof” strategy at its largest non-home market airport. Eighty percent of all Star Alliance carriers operating out of Terminal 1 are now collocated in the same or adjacent Star Alliance-branded check-in area. Once the redevelopment is complete by mid 2009, all Star Alliance member carriers serving Paris – CDG will operate from Terminal 1. This includes Air Canada, Austrian and SWISS who are presently still operating from Terminal 2A, 2D and 2B respectively.

In addition, Asiana, Star Alliance’s member airline from Korea, will commence service on the Paris to Seoul route in spring 2008. Future member carrier Air China, is already operating from Terminal 1 and EgyptAir and Turkish Airlines are considering moving their operations from Paris – Orly Airport to Charles de Gaulle.

In total, 12 Star Alliance member carriers along with three regional members operate some 75 daily flights to 30 destinations in 16 countries from CDG Airport, making it the largest single destination served by Star Alliance carriers outside their home markets.

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