Air India confirms to join Star Alliance in July

06 May 2014  2038 | Business & Trade Fairs

DELHI - Star Alliance, the world's largest grouping of carriers, said last Wednesday that Air India will formally join the alliance in July and will become the first Indian airline to do so. "Air India has completed 45 of the 64 requirements already and the remaining will be completed in May," said Air India chairman and managing director Rohit Nandan. "The precise date is yet to be decided but it will be in July," confirmed Star Alliance CEO Mark Schwab to Indian media.

Air India had previously tried to join Star Alliance. An announcement was made in 2007 but the airline finally withdrew its membership in 2011, due to IT transfer problems and difficulties in the merger of its activities with its domestic counterpart Indian Airlines. In December 2013, all Star Alliance members unanimously voted for the reintegration of Air India into the global grouping.

The processing time was then speed up as all preliminary works had been done before during Air India’s first joining attempt.

Some fine tuning still need to be done in IT fields to be sure that Air India system is totally compatible with Star Alliance system. They are also some further commercial agreements to be achieved such as code sharing, according to Mark Schwab.

Air India will then be the first Indian air carrier to enter a global alliance. Back to 2010, rival alliance oneworld signed an agreement to integrate Kingfisher Airlines. However, the carrier’s bankruptcy ended the integration process. Meanwhile, Sri Lankan joined on May 1st oneworld, becoming the first carrier from the Indian sub-continent to be part of a global alliance. “They are no plans to integrate any Indian carrier for the time being”, confirmed last week oneworld CEO Bruce Ashby.

Jet Airways could potentially be the next Indian carrier to join an alliance and this could be Skyteam. Etihad Airlines has already bought 24% of Jet Airways shares and its closer links to Air France and Alitalia would make then sense. Jet Airways is due to inaugurate its first non-stop flights between Paris and Mumbai from mid-May.

Air India will offer 63 domestic and global destinations to the alliance. Currently, 13 members of Star Alliance operate flights from and to 10 Indian cities.

Sourced: TravelDailyNews

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