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For the fourth consecutive year, Star Alliance proudly announces its victory as the World’s Leading Airline Alliance at the esteemed World Travel Awards. The announcement took place at a Gala ceremony held at Dubai’s iconic Burj Al Arab on December 1, 2023. Earlier in the North America edition in August 2023, the Star Alliance Los Angeles airport lounge achieved a remarkable milestone by securing the title of North America's Leading Airport Lounge for the fourth consecutive year, further solidifying its status as a leader in airport hospitality. Expressing his gratitude for these accolades, Star Alliance CEO Theo Panagiotoulias stated, "We are truly honoured to receive the World Travel Awards for the fourth consecutive year. This achievement is a testament to the relentless dedication of employees within the Star Alliance network who strive to provide consistent and seamless travel experiences." Panagiotoulias continued, "Our success is made possible not only by the hard work of our employees across the network, but also by the unwavering confidence and support from our valued customers. We are immensely grateful for the continued trust placed in us and our member carriers."<br/>

For the fourth consecutive year, Star Alliance has announced its victory as the World’s Leading Airline Alliance at the esteemed World Travel Awards. The announcement took place at a Gala ceremony held at Dubai’s iconic Burj Al Arab on December 1, 2023. Earlier in the North America edition in August 2023, the Star Alliance Los Angeles airport lounge achieved a remarkable milestone by securing the title of North America's Leading Airport Lounge for the fourth consecutive year, further solidifying its status as a leader in airport hospitality. Expressing his gratitude for these accolades, Star Alliance CEO Theo Panagiotoulias stated, "We are truly honoured to receive the World Travel Awards for the fourth consecutive year. This achievement is a testament to the relentless dedication of employees within the Star Alliance network who strive to provide consistent and seamless travel experiences." Panagiotoulias continued, "Our success is made possible not only by the hard work of our employees across the network, but also by the unwavering confidence and support from our valued customers. We are immensely grateful for the continued trust placed in us and our member carriers." The World Travel Awards, now in its landmark 30th edition, aims to recognize, reward, and celebrate excellence across various sectors of the travel, tourism, and hospitality industries. The winners are determined through a global poll involving qualified executives in the travel and tourism sector, as well as consumer travel buyers.<br/>

As winter approaches in the Northern Hemisphere, airlines are wheeling their de-icing equipment out of storage, typically a heavy truck with a large tank and boom-mounted cannon that sprays ice-melting glycol onto an aircraft’s wings and upper fuselage. What’s been a routine process for decades can add half an hour or more to an aircraft’s preparation for takeoff — a costly nuisance when quick turnarounds on the tarmac at congested airports are key. Last year in December, Southwest Airlines Co. suffered severe travel disruptions during a massive winter storm, in part because it couldn’t keep up with de-icing its jets. Air Canada is now exploring a novel concept to thaw its aircraft — one that does away with the hundreds of gallons of glycol and crew that spray it onto waiting jets. Instead, the airline will use heated tape strips to get the plane takeoff ready with just the flip of a switch. Canada’s flagship carrier is the first airline to fit hundreds of adhesive ice-melting strips to the upper fuselage, wings and tail of an Airbus SE A320 aircraft, with the rest of the fleet following next year. Electrons on the plane’s surface begin to shake when animated by a high-frequency current, which travels from an electric box inside the aircraft through to the strips. The movement generates heat, causing the ice to melt. The concept was developed by a Boston startup aptly called De-Ice. Co-founder and CEO Alexander Bratianu-Badea, a trained chemical engineer with a finance degree from MIT, said he was inspired to explore the technology a few years back while suffering a lengthy delay when his plane sat on the tarmac waiting for its glycol shower. Since then, the 32-year-old has worked with the FAA and Transport Canada, as well as Air Canada and other airline executives, to create a technology that’s expected to complete regulatory tests next year. So far, the system has proved it’s safe and can withstand intense weather and in-flight conditions, Bratianu-Badea said in an interview. “The idea would to be to start with Air Canada, to deliver systems and improve that experience for passengers,” he said. <br/>

Air France-KLM, Lufthansa and Etihad have been told to halt advertisements touting their environmental credentials that a UK watchdog said weren’t backed up by evidence. The Advertising Standards Authority said that all three airlines produced paid-for Google ads which gave a misleading impression of the environmental impact of air travel. The ruling was the latest by the ASA, which has previously ruled against green claims made by Lufthansa and Etihad. The aviation industry is under pressure to decarbonize although the technological challenges for the sector are immense, with hydrogen powered planes decades away. The only way for airlines at the moment to cut emissions is through the use of so-called sustainable aviation fuels, where supplies are scant, and problematic methods such as carbon offsets. The ASA said that an advertisement by Air France in July 2023 claimed that the airline “is committed to protecting the environment: travel better and sustainably.” The regulator said it expected to see a high level of evidence for such claims and after the airline failed to provide a substantive response, it concluded that the claims gave consumers a misleading impression of the impact that traveling with the airline would have on the environment. Similarly, Lufthansa touted the ability to “fly more sustainably” in the same month. The airline told the ASA that this was a reference to its “Green Fares” option, which is available to passengers on European flights. Lufthansa said those fares reduce emissions by 20% through the use of SAF and offsets the remaining emissions. The regulator said the airline should have included this information in the advertisement. <br/>

Portugal will fully privatise flag carrier TAP if the opposition Social Democratic Party (PSD) wins a snap election in March and forms a new government, PSD leader Luis Montenegro told Reuters on Tuesday. Experts have said that the privatisation of the airline and Portuguese green energy investments that require European Union funds are at risk of being derailed in the wake of last month's collapse of the Socialist government. Montenegro said the PSD's position is very clear: "it is the full privatisation of TAP's capital, obviously with specifications safeguarding Lisbon's hub and also its main connections" to Portuguese-speaking countries as well as the United States. "We will launch it immediately after the new government takes office," he said in his first interview with an international media outlet as a candidate for Prime Minister. The outgoing Socialist government approved the sale of at least 51% of TAP in September. The privatisation has already attracted interest from Lufthansa, Air France-KLM and British Airways owner IAG. Montenegro also warned that EU recovery funds have "a low execution rate" in Portugal and the plan "was not well designed" as it prioritised public investments over private companies. "If there's still time, I'd really like to reformulate the recovery and resilience program to be more effective and active in boosting the economy," he said, adding that he feared that Portuguese companies could lose competitiveness in the long term. Portugal has received E2.7b in EU post-pandemic recovery funds, but needs to accelerate the approval of projects that qualify for such aid if it is to make use of the E22b on offer by the 2026 deadline. Only 12% of the funds have been deployed so far.<br/>

Air New Zealand ordered an electric plane from an Amazon.com Inc.-backed startup as part of a plan to operate commercial flights with cleaner, next-generation aircraft in little more than two years. The battery-powered plane from Beta Technologies takes off and lands like a normal jet and has flown as far as 500 kilometers (310 miles) in tests. Air New Zealand said Wednesday it plans to use it for short cargo flights in 2026, paving the way for larger, next-generation aircraft on normal domestic services from 2030. Global aviation is racing to find ways of reaching carbon neutrality by 2050 after burning jet fuel with little restraint for more than half a century. Electric planes are one option for reducing emissions on shorter trips, though the technology isn’t yet viable for the long-haul flights that produce the bulk of aviation’s emissions. Air New Zealand has options to buy two more of the ALIA aircraft from Beta, and has rights to purchase a further 20. A different version of the plane takes off and lands vertically like a helicopter. The airline plans to operate initial flights with the ALIA on routes of around 150 kilometers. The plane is just over 12 meters long and will fly at speeds of as much as 270 kilometers an hour. Its battery is expected to take no more than one hour to recharge.<br/>