The facility is for first and business class passengers, invited guests and Star Alliance Gold Card holders travelling on any member carrier from Terminal 1.
Located in the international departures area near the flight connection desks in Pier 3, the lounge is 1,650 square metres n size and has more than 300 seats in separate first class and business class sections. There is a food service areas, two business centres with computers, printers, faxes and Wi-Fi Internet access, shower facilities and a children”s area.
For the alliance, the new lounge offers significant cost savings. Says Lee Hock Lye, Vice-President, Products & Services, Star Alliance. ”Rather than own separate lounges and incur duplicate construction and operating costs, Star Alliance lounges save the airlines money, and give customers a high-quality experience in a comfortable environment that is much larger and with more amenities than the carriers could provide on their own.
Along with the opening of the departures lounge, first and business class passengers arriving at Heathrow on bmi, South African and United can also use the new arrivals lounge (by invitation only), built in Star Alliance design, which opened in April.
The new lounge is part of the relocation of Star Alliance member carriers into Terminal 1. United Airlines and Air New Zealand moved on July 4, 2008. Asiana, bmi, LOT, South African and US Airways are already located in Terminal 1.
Work on Terminal 1 started in April with demolition of the check-in islands and the creation of a re-designed check-in hall that allowed Air New Zealand and United to move from Terminal 3.
The second phase of the move will coincide with the closure of Terminal 2. Austrian, Lufthansa, SWISS, TAP and regional member Croatia Airlines are scheduled to move to Terminal 1 later this year or early 2009. All other member carriers serving Heathrow will continue to operate from Terminal 3 until 2012.
The movement of member carriers into a single terminal is called ”Move under one Roof”. Eighteen Star Alliance member carriers ” plus two regional members - fly to Heathrow. Egyptair will join the alliance this month, bringing the total to 19 member carriers.
The Star Alliance network was established in 1997 with the Coporate Plus programme following in 2000. The members of Star Alliance are Air Canada, Air China, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Austrian, bmi, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Shanghai Airlines, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, Spanair, SWISS, TAP Portugal, Turkish Airlines, THAI, United and US Airways. Air India and Egyptair have been accepted as future members.
Regional member carriers are Adria Airways (Slovenia), Blue1 (Finland) and Croatia Airlines. Overall, the Star Alliance network offers nearly 18,000 daily flights to 965 destinations in 162 countries.
www.staralliance.com