On June 22, 2000, the CEOs of Aeromexico, Air France, Delta Air Lines and Korean Air met in New York to announce the formation of SkyTeam™, the first global airline alliance created around the customer. At this time, the alliance offered passengers 6,402 daily flights to 451 destinations in 98 countries, including more nonstop destinations between the U.S. and Europe than any other airline grouping.
SkyTeam launched its first global branding campaign on June 23 across Europe, the United States, Latin America and Asia. Created by EuroRSCG/BETC, the campaign featured the tagline, "Caring More About You," and introduced air travelers to an alliance dedicated to providing a consistent level of performance, quality and detailed attention to customer service.
In September, SkyTeam extended its focus to cargo services and announced the creation of the world's largest airline cargo alliance, SkyTeam CargoTM. The partnership aligned Aeromexpress, Air France Cargo, Delta Air Logistics and Korean Air Cargo to provide shippers seamless cargo coordination and delivery throughout SkyTeam's global network.
In October, SkyTeam announced its intent to add CSA Czech Airlines to the alliance, increasing the number of members to five and adding 21 destinations in 14 countries to the SkyTeam network. CSA Czech Airlines was slated to become an official member in early 2001, following a system evaluation and integration process. CSA Czech Airlines enabled SkyTeam and SkyTeam Cargo to offer customers an additional European stronghold with increased access to travel and shipping destinations in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe.
As an added customer benefit, SkyTeam announced in October that all SkyTeam flights throughout the alliance's extensive worldwide route system would be smoke free.