SkyTeam

When an aircraft with a silver fuselage and dark blue tail taxis past the fence at Schiphol, it is neither a test aircraft nor a new airline – it is the alliance livery of SkyTeam. The youngest of the three big aviation alliances has its European center of gravity in Amsterdam and Paris, is currently bringing new colors into the network with SAS and Virgin Atlantic, and brings widebody aircraft from Seoul, Taipei, Hanoi or Riyadh to European hubs. For you as a spotter, SkyTeam is above all one thing: a map of which airlines belong together.

Founded as an answer to the competition

At the end of the 1990s, global air traffic sorted itself into blocs. In 1997 Star Alliance was formed around Lufthansa and United, followed in 1999 by oneworld with British Airways and American Airlines. Any major network airline that didn’t want to be left behind needed partners of its own. On June 22, 2000, four airlines founded the third big alliance in New York: Delta Air Lines, Air France, Aeroméxico and Korean Air.

That meant North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia were represented from the start. In the same year a cargo arm, SkyTeam Cargo, was formed as well. In 2001 Czech Airlines and Alitalia joined, and in 2004 came the big leap: KLM, Northwest and Continental joined at the same time – the alliance’s largest expansion up to then.

How an alliance works – and what it is not

An alliance is not a group. The members remain independent airlines with their own fleets, their own codes and their own liveries. What connects them are agreements: connections are coordinated, flights are sold as codeshares, frequent flyer status is mutually recognized, and premium passengers may use the partners’ lounges. At SkyTeam, the priority services for premium passengers and high-status frequent flyers run under the name SkyPriority – you see the signs for it at many check-in counters and gates.

The airline group is something to distinguish from this. Air France-KLM, for example, is a real group in which Air France, KLM, Transavia and other companies stand under one roof. SkyTeam, by contrast, connects airlines that legally own nothing of each other. Some members are nevertheless additionally intertwined through stakes or joint ventures – Delta and Virgin Atlantic, for example, work closely with Air France-KLM across the North Atlantic.

For you as a spotter, the codeshare is the most important point. On the departure board a flight often appears with three or four flight numbers, but it is flown by only one airline with one particular aircraft. Why flight number and callsign are two different things is explained in the article Callsign and flight number.

The members at a glance

As of 2025, SkyTeam has 18 full members. The list changes regularly, so treat it as a snapshot. Broken down by region, the field looks like this:

Aeroflot has formally not left, but its membership has been suspended since 2022. Over the years, those that left include Continental (2009 to Star Alliance), Northwest (2010 merged into Delta), China Southern (2018), Alitalia (2021 ceased operations), Czech Airlines (2024 ceased operations) and ITA Airways, which left the alliance in 2025 after Lufthansa Group acquired a stake.

New colors: SAS and Virgin Atlantic

The two most exciting additions of recent years come from Europe. In 2023 Virgin Atlantic became a full member – the first British airline in SkyTeam. You see its aircraft with the red tail mainly at London Heathrow, where the airline is at home. At the well-known spot Myrtle Avenue, in westerly operations when the southern runway is used for landings, its long-haul jets also come over you low on approach, including the Airbus A350-1000 and Boeing 787-9.

On September 1, 2024, SAS followed. Remarkable about that: SAS was one of the five founding members of Star Alliance in 1997 and turned its back on it after more than 25 years. The reason is the new closeness to Air France-KLM. For spotters in Scandinavia, the alliance picture has thus turned around at three hubs – at Copenhagen Airport, in Stockholm Arlanda and in Oslo. In Copenhagen the Flyvergrillen is the classic place for it.

Recognizing the SkyTeam livery

Like Star Alliance, SkyTeam has its own alliance design in which members paint individual aircraft. The identifying mark is the silver-metallic fuselage with a large SkyTeam lettering, combined with a dark blue tail carrying the alliance logo. The name of the respective airline stays visible on the aircraft, but is much smaller than in the regular livery.

That is exactly what makes identification tricky at times: from a greater distance a SkyTeam aircraft of Air France looks similar to one of China Airlines. So pay attention to the aircraft type, the airline lettering in the forward fuselage area and above all the registration. How to read registrations and which country they belong to is covered in the article Understanding aircraft registrations.

Alliance liveries are rare because each airline paints only a few aircraft this way. If you are searching for them specifically, flight tracking services and the tips from the article Finding special liveries help. Besides the alliance livery, most members also show a small SkyTeam logo on the fuselage, often near the forward boarding door – a good detail shot for your collection.

The hubs: where SkyTeam is at home

In Europe, almost everything at SkyTeam revolves around two airports. At Amsterdam-Schiphol Airport, KLM is at home, complemented by its regional subsidiary KLM Cityhopper. Group sister Transavia also flies from here, but as a low-cost carrier does not belong to the alliance. At Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle Airport Air France operates its hub. At both places partners from overseas also land, flying exactly there because they get connections to the Air France-KLM network.

On top of that come the home bases of the other European members: Heathrow for Virgin Atlantic, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Oslo for SAS, Bucharest for TAROM and Madrid-Barajas Airport for Air Europa. In Madrid the hill La Muñoza is a popular place where you see Air Europa alongside many oneworld airlines.

SkyTeam in Germany, Austria and Switzerland

SkyTeam has no hub in the German-speaking region – here Star Alliance with Lufthansa Group is at home. Still, you meet SkyTeam airlines almost everywhere. KLM and Air France serve many German airports and bring connecting passengers to Amsterdam and Paris. Typical are narrowbody jets like the Boeing 737-800 at KLM, the Airbus A220-300 at Air France and regional jets like the Embraer E195-E2 of KLM Cityhopper.

You find especially a lot of SkyTeam long-haul in Germany at Frankfurt Airport. Besides Delta, members from Asia and the Middle East land there; which ones at the moment depends on the schedule. A good place for it is the Zeppelinheim viewing platform. Vienna, Zurich, Munich or Düsseldorf also see KLM and Air France regularly, but long-haul from other members much more rarely.

Types you see at SkyTeam

Because the members are independent airlines, the variety of types is large. On long-haul, modern twinjets dominate. KLM uses the Boeing 777-300ER and the Boeing 787-10, among others, Air France and SAS fly the Airbus A350-900, and Delta uses the Airbus A330-900 alongside the A350. A highlight for Jumbo fans is Korean Air, one of the few airlines to operate the passenger version of the Boeing 747-8 – check before the trip whether and where it still flies currently.

On short- and medium-haul it is more down to earth: A320neo at SAS, 737 at KLM, A220 at Air France. At TAROM from Romania you also meet turboprops like the ATR 72-600. Fleet situations change constantly; take these examples as orientation, not as a complete list. If you are still unsure about the types, the article Telling Airbus and Boeing apart helps.

SkyTeam Cargo and the outlook

In parallel to the passenger alliance, SkyTeam Cargo was formed in 2000. Members include Air France-KLM Cargo, Delta Cargo, Korean Air Cargo, Aeroméxico Cargo, Saudia Cargo and China Cargo Airlines. When spotting, this shows mainly through freighters such as the Boeing 777F, which some members use. How to reliably recognize freighters is described in the article Identifying cargo aircraft.

Exciting is the opening beyond aviation. In September 2024 the high-speed rail operator Eurostar signed a letter of intent to work with SkyTeam as the first partner without aircraft of its own. The goal is to better link train and flight travel in Great Britain, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. For spotters, that changes nothing about the trains – but it shows how much alliances see themselves as a travel platform.

SkyTeam compared

Besides SkyTeam there are two other big alliances. Star Alliance is the oldest and has a strong home advantage in the German-speaking region with Lufthansa, SWISS and Austrian Airlines. oneworld, built around British Airways, American Airlines and Iberia, is visible in Germany mainly through feeders to London and Madrid. SkyTeam, finally, is present in Central Europe through Air France-KLM and, with its Asian members, covers East Asia especially strongly.

Which alliance is more exciting in the end depends on your location. Anyone who lives near Schiphol sees SkyTeam all day. Anyone who spots in Munich sees mainly Star Alliance. You’ll find inspiration for trips to the big European spots in the article The best spotting locations in Europe, and the codes of airlines and airports are explained in IATA and ICAO codes.

Conclusion

SkyTeam is the youngest of the big alliances, but by no means the smallest. With Air France and KLM it has two strong pillars in Europe, with Delta one of the largest carriers of the USA, and with Korean Air, China Airlines or Vietnam Airlines broad access to Asia. The additions of Virgin Atlantic and SAS show that the alliance keeps growing – while ITA Airways has only just left.

For spotters, in the end it is not the logo on the press release that counts, but the aircraft in front of the lens. The silver alliance livery is a nice collecting target, the hubs in Amsterdam and Paris are the best places to see many members in one day – and the registration remains the most reliable way to assign every sighting cleanly.