Argentina
Aerolineas Argentinas is an Argentinian airline based in Buenos Aires EZE. About two weeks ago they signed an agreement that they are going to join the SkyTeam Alliance in 2012. For those not in the know... SkyTeam is an alliance of airlines consisting of Aeroflot (Russia), Aeroméxico (Mexico), Air Europa (Spain), Air France (France), Alitalia (Italy), China Southern Airlines (China), Czech Airlines (Czech Republic), Delta Air Lines (USA), Kenya Airways (Kenya), KLM (The Netherlands), Korean Air (South Korea), TAROM (Romania) and Vietnam Airlines (Vietnam). Future members include China Airlines and China Eastern Airlines (China), Garuda Indonesia (Indonesia) and of course the before mentioned Aerolineas Argentinas. SkyTeam is the 2nd largest alliance after Star Alliance. OneWorld is the smallest of them all.
KLM 777 in SkyTeam colors (photo by Mary Fraser via airliners.net)
When an airline signs an agreement there is a period of assessment by the other alliance members. Each member sends a team of people to the aspriring new entrant to perfrom a general audit of the airline. This includes documentation, groundhandling procedures, in-flight services, catering, airport systems, airport services etc. etc. When the audit is completed it will be extensively studied by SkyTeam people and then an action plan will be set up for all the necessary improvements. SkyTeam will then help the airline get everything up to standard before continuing to the next stage.
The next stage is the complete integration process into SkyTeam. This is done by SkyTeam Central based in The World Trade Center in Amsterdam. SkyTeam itself has few employees. Almost everyone working for them are on loan from partner airlines. In this case, KLM asked me to perform certain audits partaning to airport services. This hasn't got anything to do with Delta... this is me doing something on behalf of KLM. At the end of the day I am a KLM'er. I am on loan to Delta for a period.
Anyway, it all went very fast. I was called Saturday morning at 05.00 with the question if I was willing to go to Argentina that afternoon via Paris CDG with AF for an audit. The person who had to perform the audit had a family emergency. I was like... okay. I'll do it. After I put the phone down, I realized that I had short notice. And I only had like 2 hours sleep at that point, because Micheline's wedding was the day before! But I did what I had to do and now thankfully it's over with.
I was going to make a post about Micheline's wedding. but I am too tired. Another time maybe. Good night!
KLM 777 in SkyTeam colors (photo by Mary Fraser via airliners.net)
When an airline signs an agreement there is a period of assessment by the other alliance members. Each member sends a team of people to the aspriring new entrant to perfrom a general audit of the airline. This includes documentation, groundhandling procedures, in-flight services, catering, airport systems, airport services etc. etc. When the audit is completed it will be extensively studied by SkyTeam people and then an action plan will be set up for all the necessary improvements. SkyTeam will then help the airline get everything up to standard before continuing to the next stage.
The next stage is the complete integration process into SkyTeam. This is done by SkyTeam Central based in The World Trade Center in Amsterdam. SkyTeam itself has few employees. Almost everyone working for them are on loan from partner airlines. In this case, KLM asked me to perform certain audits partaning to airport services. This hasn't got anything to do with Delta... this is me doing something on behalf of KLM. At the end of the day I am a KLM'er. I am on loan to Delta for a period.
Anyway, it all went very fast. I was called Saturday morning at 05.00 with the question if I was willing to go to Argentina that afternoon via Paris CDG with AF for an audit. The person who had to perform the audit had a family emergency. I was like... okay. I'll do it. After I put the phone down, I realized that I had short notice. And I only had like 2 hours sleep at that point, because Micheline's wedding was the day before! But I did what I had to do and now thankfully it's over with.
I was going to make a post about Micheline's wedding. but I am too tired. Another time maybe. Good night!
posted by Traveller at 11:48 PM
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