SkyTeam announced a fifth Associate Airline candidate, Middle East Airlines, on January 16.
On January 17, SkyTeam was announced 2005 Best Airline Alliance by Global Traveler Magazine, based on the results of an annual readers survey.
Aeroflot officially joined as the alliance’s tenth member on April 14. With the addition of Aeroflot, SkyTeam’s network now offers 373 million passengers nearly 15,000 daily flights to more than 728 destinations worldwide.
On April 25, SkyTeam announced the launch of SkyTeam Global Meetings, a new product designed to streamline the process of arranging travel for large-scale international meetings. With SkyTeam Global Meetings, event organizers are able to coordinate all air travel needs across ten member airlines via one single point of contact, while attendees can receive attractive or discounted airfares and still accrue frequent flyer miles on all SkyTeam carriers.
Also on June 2, SkyTeam announced it will be the official alliance of the 2007 Paris Air Show, after signing International Paris Air Show Le Bourget as the first SkyTeam Global Meetings customer. SkyTeam will provide the event organizers with a streamlined process for arranging travel for the show’s attendees and exhibitors.
Additionally in June, nine SkyTeam carriers signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with British Airport Authority (BAA) to co-locate their facilities in Terminal 4 at London Heathrow International Airport (LHR), providing easier connections and more convenience to the nearly 3.5 million SkyTeam passengers who travel through LHR each year. According to the agreement, by 2008, carriers with existing LHR service, including Aeroflot, Air France, Alitalia - Linee Aeree Italiane, Czech Airlines and Korean Air, will join KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, which currently serves its passengers in this terminal.
On June 28, China Southern Airlines signed a Global Airline Alliance Agreement (GAAA) with SkyTeam in Guangzhou. The agreement was a formal step in the alliance’s new member process and indicated that the Chinese carrier was on track for official alliance membership.
In October, four SkyTeam carriers serving Brazil announced the co-location of their services at Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos International Airport (GRU). Aeromexico, Air France, Alitalia and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines are operating out of the new facility, located in Terminal 1 Wing A of GRU. The facility is the first SkyTeam-centric co-location network-wide that features participating carriers equally.