The Star Alliance recently signed a new two-year global corporate agreement with Volvo AB, covering 12 of the partnership's 16 airline members, according to an announcement this week by Star participant SAS. "The negotiations continued for a year in strong competition with SkyTeam before Volvo made its final choice," said SAS global account manager Ágústa Ólafsdóttir.
The alliance deal is Volvo's largest to date and includes "favorable ticket terms and conditions, access to a large number of lounges and express check-in." Last year, the company signed a deal with SN Brussels Airlines as part of a six-member consortium of Scandinavian companies
(BTNonline, Dec. 16, 2004). Headquartered in Göteborg, Sweden, Volvo fields 81,000 employees worldwide with production facilities in 25 countries.
Separately, United Airlines and Japan's Toyota Motor Corp. recently completed a corporate deal in which the airline is "an exclusive carrier to San Antonio, exclusive U.S. West Coast carrier and provides transportation to primary facilities in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Tijuana, Mexico," according to an internal United employee memo issued last month. The agreement also includes "an exclusive contract" on the San Francisco-Nagoya route, which United began serving in March with daily nonstop service.
Noting Toyota's size—more than 200,000 worldwide employees and various locations in both Japan and North America—United said, "Toyota was seen as a big fish in the corporate travel market."
"The road map the team laid out was very simple," added Naoki Ohyama, United's Nagoya passenger sales manager. "The plan was, 'Win Toyota.' "
As a result, United said it adjusted its schedule by running United Express service between San Francisco and San Antonio, and provided "gate-to-gate Japanese-language escort service in San Francisco expressly for Toyota employees." United said the Nagoya sales team also keep tabs on Toyota travelers to ensure customer service and greets VIP travelers at the airport.
In fact, the carrier's Inflight Service Representative program, launched in July, was "pursued specifically to capture Toyota's business." Tom Romanski, senior staff representative for onboard service, said the program "further differentiated us from our competitors—ANA, American and Northwest—in our quest for Toyota's account." The program now is available to assist all passengers.
United said its sales team now is pursuing "the business of Toyota affiliates, such as Aisin and Denso, which also fly primarily in business class."
U.S. car manufacturers Ford Motor Co. and General Motors, both located near Northwest Airlines' Detroit hub, make use of services offered by the SkyTeam alliance. Germany's DaimlerChrysler contracts with SkyTeam members Continental, Delta and Northwest, but also is among Star Alliance's corporate clients
(BTN, July 4).