United Announces Enhanced Cooperation with Star Alliance Partner Lufthansa

United Airlines (NYSE: UAL) has announced that it will be enhancing its level of cooperation with its Star Alliance partner Lufthansa in the North Atlantic market. The carriers have agreed to share revenues on North Atlantic flights, align North Atlantic pricing and sales strategies and work even more closely in areas such as scheduling, customer service and marketing, in order to deliver improvements to the customer experience and generate additional revenue.

Beginning in 2003, United and Lufthansa customers will benefit from more destinations through additional code sharing, smoother connections between carriers, speedier and more efficient airport check-in processes, the introduction of electronic ticketing between the two carriers to eliminate the need for paper tickets, and an enhancement of both airlines’ frequent flier-programs.

“This new level of cooperation with Lufthansa is a critical component in United’s recovery because of the additional revenue it will generate for both carriers,” said Graham Atkinson, United’s senior vice president of International. “We expect to enhance United’s revenues by approximately $90 million per year once the benefits of this agreement are fully realized.”

“This agreement also is the natural evolution of the strong relationship already shared between United and Lufthansa,” Atkinson continues. “Our relationship dates back to 1994 when we began the first stages of our bilateral cooperation, which included a sales and advanced marketing relationship and code sharing. Lufthansa has remained an important partner to United over the years, and we are pleased to be able to deepen this important relationship.”

In 1996, United and Lufthansa were granted conditional anti-trust immunity by the Department of Transportation. Most recently, the carriers received clearance from the European Commission, which allows the carriers to share revenue, coordinate pricing and schedules.