Australia’s SkyTeam member airlines will join forces in opening a new lounge in Sydney Airport this year.
Modelled on the same lines as SkyTeam’s flagship lounge at London's Heathrow Terminal 4 (and shown in the photos on this page), the facility will carry the SkyTeam brand of the SkyTeam alliance rather than belong to any individual airline.
SkyTeam says the Sydney lounge will open “before the end of 2013”, and will be followed by a similar lounge in Beijing in early 2014.
The lounge will be open to travellers on all SkyTeam airlines which operate out of Sydney, including China Southern, China Eastern, Delta Airlines, Korean Air and Vietnam Airlines, along with new member Garuda Indonesia from March next year.
None of these airlines currently have a lounge at Sydney, which forces them to pay other airlines to use their lounges. SkyTeam says the move to a single alliance lounge “will reduce combined costs by approximately 10%.”
First and business class passengers will enjoy access to the lounge, along with travellers holding top-tier SkyTeam Elite Plus status in their airline’s frequent flyer scheme.
Read: SkyTeam frequent flyer tiers & benefits
SkyTeam’s lounge at Heathrow T4 is an impressive two-level facility spread across 1,600 square meters with room for more than 300 passengers.
Jointly designed by SkyTeam member airlines serving Heathrow, the lounge goes beyond the usual selection of free food and drink, dedicated workspaces and showers to include a quiet area with day beds, a wine bar and an oxygen bar.
There’s also a separate ‘VIP area’ for first class passengers with “ultra-luxury amenities including exclusive wine and champagne offerings”.
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David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
19 Aug 2011
Total posts 168
Hopefully better food than the LHR one, which is rather dire. The LHR T4 Skyteam lounge is a pleasant place to be, but it isn't outstanding and the catering/drink quality/variety is mediocre.
Korean is the best of the Skyteam airlines flying into Sydney, so I'd hope it might drive an uplift in quality to be competitive with QF and EK. Otherwise, it is just another lounge and wont be a compelling proposition.
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
23 May 2012
Total posts 268
Yes please! Whenever I fly China Southern, I always want to go into a lounge from Sydney. The London lounge looks very impressive from the PR-shots and this competition will be very good in the competitive aviation market.
Thai Airways International - Royal Orchid Plus
16 May 2011
Total posts 113
China Airlines (CI) is also a SkyTeam member who also operate out of SYD.
CI, CZ, MU, KE, DL, VN & GA - quite a sizeable amount of SkyTeam traffic into SYD with 55* weekly flights. (*Includes VN daily flights, GA intended increase to x6 weekly to CGK)
22 Jul 2011
Total posts 19
Aerolineas Argentinas also operates out of Sydney
Hi Guest, join in the discussion on Sydney Airport to get SkyTeam lounge this year