New Star Alliance Lounges Opens At Paris Airport (CDG)

Is Singapore Airlines the only Star Alliance airline to operate international First Class to CDG? Google Flights seems to suggest so.

It’s worth noting that these Star Alliance lounges are in addition to airline operated lounges by carriers in Star Alliance like Lufthansa.

One commenter keeps hawking about the massive Star Alliance/SkyTeam paradigm shift in Europe in favor of the latter and yet there are still 0 SkyTeam branded lounges across continental Europe while Star Alliance has just opened up a second lounge in CDG.

Not only is Air France-KLM the weakest of the big 3 European multinationals, the synergy between AF and KLM has always been more combative than the airlines within IAG and Lufthansa group. What’s worse for AF-KLM is the green handicap for AMS. KLM has always been the more profitable of two with better labor relations, lower costs, and competent leadership. Making AF take point and KLM in the backseat is just asking for trouble, especially given all the ATC issues that constantly plague France.

What a massive upgrade for United flyers going to the US. The old lounge was okay, not huge but big enough, but low ceilings, little light, and overlooked a gravel roof. Most importantly, it was in the main part of the terminal, and thus before you went through security. so you had to leave well before your flight to make sure you cleared security, and then spend way too much time in the scrum of the ridiculously small gate areas, often with multiple full 777 flights leaving from neighboring gates at the same time. The gate area expansion there was badly needed and is clearly paying off, not just for premium passengers.

Traveling outside the "European Union," or outside the "Schengen Area?" I know you know, I'm just being pedantic.

Details matter. Currently, all EU member states except Bulgaria, Cyprus, Ireland and Romania are part of the Schengen free-travel area, which also includes non-EU states Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

@ Jerry,
Thank you for being before me. Exactly, i.e. Switzerland is not EU but it is Schengen since a while.

KLM has far more industrial disputes and deteriorating employee relations than Air France in the past few years. It used to be the case they never had any strikes It’s also a complete myth there’s a lack of synergy. AF has better labour relations since Anne Rigail and Ben Smith took over. Schiphol has fallen far behind CDG as an efficient airport with AF offering a much more superior in flight product eg La Premiere and food. The Dutch cannot cook and their “ cuisine “ is vile.

There may not be atc strikes however Schiphol is plagued with distruptions caused by fog and wind almost every other day.

Air China seems to operate first class service between Paris and Beijing.

The current SA lounge at CDG is accessible via Priority Pass. Will the new one be as well?

This is an incredibly welcome addition for SA at CDG - all plaudits for the much needed upgrade.

Not true.
KML did 200m profit with 8% margin, AF did 450m with 9% margin in Q2 for instance. But to be fair the profitably of each brand is hard to really isolate as AMS / NL has a lot more transit incl. to french secondary cities vs. Paris / France which is a bigger market. KLM alone would probably struggle more, just like Swiss is very profitable in the Lufthansa group, but it benefits from many synergies.

For lounge access, I though that both United Club and Maple leaf subscribers have access to this lounge too, correct?