Air India Is Now Star Alliance's Newest Member

Tuesday, 24th June 2014 at 03:43am

After its application was abruptly suspended in 2011 due to unsatisfactory records, the airline's top officials obviously were saddened by the alliance's decision. The evaluation committee didn't find the airline, at that time, ready to join the alliance.

Out of the blue, in December of last year, Air India received an invitation from Star Alliance's CEO to reapply for membership. Though surprised, it didn't waste time and gladly accepted the invitation and quickly refiled its application.

More than six month later since the invitation, Star Alliance now welcomes Air India to the club on July 11 when it will formally and officially induct the airline as its newest member.

During the recent meeting of the Chief Executive Board in London, all the 26 members gave their unanimous decision to take Air India into their alliance.

For years, all the three major airline alliances have long shown their interest in taking one member from India, but in vain, due to peculiar conditions that the Indian government has put up. The government had warned that no other Indian carriers can be admitted to any of the alliances without first admitting Air India, the state-owned flag carrier. As a result, the opportunity of other eligible Indian carriers to join an alliance was sacrificed due largely to the pre-set condition.

With Air India's admission to Star Alliance in the offing, other global alliances may now have the freedom to court an Indian carrier to join them. But so far, neither oneworld nor SkyTeam sent feelers to other Indian carriers.

Air India first applied for Star Alliance membership in 2007, shortly after its merger with Indian Airlines, another state-owned carrier. However, in 2011, after almost four years, the alliance decided to suspend its application for its inability to meet the requirements. The alliance specifically mentioned the airline's failing financial health among others.

Ashok Gajapathi Raju, the country's Civil Aviation Minister, welcomed the development and was hoping that Air India's membership in Star Alliance will somehow bail it out from its financial woes. He hoped that Air India will grow its revenue by up to 5% with the alliance and finally redeem itself from indebtedness.

The Minister, however, didn't categorically say whether the airline will be able to recover soon. He also declined to answer when asked if and when the airline is going to be privatized. He merely told the media that all issues concerning the airline were presented on the table during the cabinet meeting.

Air India customer will now have access to more than 1,300 airport destinations from 195 countries from Africa to Asia, from Europe to the Americas and Oceania. Star Alliance operates a combined fleet of more than 4,300 aircraft with over 21,900 flights daily.

By: Pete Lee.