OK, so OneWorld move over in September and Sky Team and other non aligned Intercontinental flights before end of year. Good to have it to ourselves to start with though !
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Quote:
STAR ALLIANCE FIRST TO OPERATE FROM TERMINAL 1 IN BARCELONA
BARCELONA, Spain – June 18th, 2009 – All 14 Star Alliance member carriers serving Barcelona have moved to the new Terminal 1 at “El Prat” Airport: Adria Airways, Austrian, Blue1, Croatia Airlines, EGYPTAIR, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, SAS, Singapore Airlines, Spanair, SWISS, TAP, Turkish Airlines and US Airways. This makes Star Alliance the first alliance to operate from this facility, which welcomed its first passengers yesterday. Future member airlines Aegean Airlines and Brussels Airlines are also operating from Terminal 1 and provisions have already been made to accommodate Continental Airlines in the same area at a later stage.
Following the alliance’s ”Move under one Roof” (MuoR) strategy, check-in and ticketing counters used by the member carriers have been co-located, with numerous self service check-in facilities available. The more than 700 weekly flights operated by the member carriers from the Catalan capital all leave from the same part of the terminal, which also improves the customer experience for connecting passengers. Additionally, the “preferred gate” concept allocates gates nearest to the designated lounge facilities.
Until September, First and Business Class passengers as well as Star Alliance Gold Card holders will enjoy quality and comfort at the VIP lounge operated by the Spanish National Airports Company (AENA). Then Spanair will open the doors of their new 800 square metre VIP lounge, the largest at Barcelona Airport, providing eligible passengers a wide range of superior services and facilities.
On the arrivals side, any baggage enquiries will be handled at the Star Alliance branded Common Baggage Service Facility.
JK (mainly) and the other *A airlines (as subsidiaries) got the brand new T1 terminal @ BCN (and it didn't have anything to do with the catalan government investing in JK ).
The terminal opened 2 last wednesday with a reduced operation (only 240 flights) to ensure there wouldn't be the chaos MAD and LHR had when they opened their new terminals. I happened to fly BCN-ZHR on LX on the opening day (I swear is a coincidence!), and I took some pictures of the terminal and the *A lounge...wanna see them?
The terminal is very wide, lots of nartural light and in soft green shades. Amazing amount of shops, tactile maps all around, information points...is not as espectacular as MAD T4, but is nice!
About the lounge, it's still under construction, so all the fun part (the golf simulator, the massage room, the hairdresser...) are still not open. But it has now fully functional nice seating area, good booze selection, resting area, showers, working area. And it is way better than what we had before at the old terminals!
Thanks for sharing! How was the food and beverage selection? What was ths lounge called? I remember reading there would be 2 or 3 lounges in the terminal.
Well, there was plenty of beers, wine and stronger booze on the bar. About food, I went at 10am so there was only snacks and breakfast stuff (croissants, muffins, cereal...)
Well, there was plenty of beers, wine and stronger booze on the bar. About food, I went at 10am so there was only snacks and breakfast stuff (croissants, muffins, cereal...)
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