Air India to Debut as Star Alliance Newest Member

Wednesday, 18th December 2013 at 11:47am

Barring any glitches, Air India's entry to the elite circle of global airlines will come sooner than expected next year as the alliance is aiming to grab a substantial share of India's huge growing air travel market.

The country's flag carrier applied for membership to Star Alliance six years ago, in 2007, but didn't prosper due to internal problems that the airline needed to address during that time. Its application for membership was eventually suspended in 2011, dashing its hope to become a full-pledged member of the world's first and largest airline alliance.

The airline's chairman, Rohit Nandan, is hoping for a fast-tracked entry to the alliance within a few months next year, saying his airline is now ready for its accession to the alliance.

The airline has already upgraded its IT system which is a prerequisite for membership in order to be at par with all other members. The IT system is said to be just one of the many hurdles that every prospective member has to comply with. The alliance has set 75 'core values' related to passenger service for any airline seeking membership to observe.

According to Mark Schwab, Star Alliance CEO, Indian market is so big that it should be well-represented in the group which has now a roster of 28 full members.

Air India and another state-owned Indian Airlines merged in 2006 to form the present Air India. It has been struggling since then to improve its combined financial resources, resorting to selling some of its planes in 2009 to partly pay its mounting debt and accumulated losses.

Today, Air India has somewhat eased out from the doldrums and is slowly recovering with improved service and recapturing its lost share in the market during the crisis.

Star Alliance member airlines operating in India are said to have cornered 13% of the total international passengers volume while member airlines from two major rivals, OneWorld and SkyTeam, garnered a combined 16%. Non-alliance member airlines netted the remaining 71% of the total volume.

Global airlines alliances are having a hard time finding an Indian airline to enjoin with them.

The doomed Kingfisher Airlines was touted to be the first Indian carrier to join an airline alliance when it signified to join OneWorld in February 2010. It has since ceased operations after it failed to renew its operating license in December 2012 following the suspension of the same by the Indian government in September that year.

The Indian government subsequently scrapped all entitlements given to Kingfisher in February 2013 and assigned them to other carriers.

By: Pete Lee.