Star Alliance, the world's largest airline alliance, has partnered with Skyscanner, the world's travel search engine, to allow travellers visiting the Star Alliance website to search for flights, view airfares and book them directly with its member airlines.

This feature, easily accessible alongside the popular lounge finder, flight status and other journey-related services, utilises Skyscanner's fare search, linking directly to the alliance's member carrier websites for purchase.

The website, which complements the individual websites of its 28 member airlines, in nine languages, has simultaneously undergone a major makeover. The overall layout is brighter, more user-friendly and provides shorter paths to its most popular features across both desktop and mobile devices.

With more than 18,800 daily flights to over 1,300 airport destinations in 193 countries, the alliance now offers coverage to 98% of the world. The new capabilities also allow customers to find global connections that best meet their travel needs.

"By introducing the alliance carrier fare search feature, made possible through our Skyscanner partnership, we are responding to our alliance customers' feedback, offering a service which allows our members' frequent flyers to easily book with Star Alliance member airlines and enjoy Star Alliance benefits", said Jeremy Drury, Director Digital & E-Services for Star Alliance. "Anything that is bookable on our member airlines' websites can now be reached through our site," Drury adds, going on to say, "we look forward to exploring further opportunities with Skyscanner."

"Travellers are at the very heart of what we do at Skyscanner. Through proprietary technology and features, we strive to make travel search simple.",

said Hugh Aitken, Skyscanner's Senior Director Strategic Partnerships. "This new capability, available through our partnership with Star Alliance, is an example of how we will work collaboratively to bring even more value to customers during the planning process and travel experience.'

The new website search capability is one of several digital initiatives the alliance is developing with its member carriers to place capabilities in the hands of its customers through application of leading-edge technologies. These include services such as interline baggage tracking, interline seat assignment at time of reservation, lounge and Gold Track security locations, and frequent flyer membership number validation.

Contributed by Star Alliance