Star Alliance back to wooing Air India

Is Star Alliance looking to win over Air India again?
Officials in the Ministry of Civil Aviation have indicated that this prestigious airline grouping has initiated talks with India’s state carrier once again since it wants to get a toehold in the Indian market.

“They (Star Alliance) do not have much of an option. If they want to take a share of the Indian market, they will have to come to AI. Do you think we will allow them to take another private airline from India on board without first accepting AI?” said the officials.

Apparently, representatives of the alliance met Air India (AI) chairman and managing director Rohit Nandan some time back — the first such meeting since August this year, when Star told AI that its three-and-a-half year wait for membership was futile.
The alliance had alleged that the airline had failed to meet basic criteria needed to become a member.

Also, Alliance’s insistence on inducting Jet Airways rubbed the government the wrong way and talks were suspended.
AI’s entry was also scuttled by some competing global airlines who want a larger slice of the Indian market as a quid pro quo. These airlines vetoed the proposal to let AI join the alliance.

For the record, Star Alliance is a consortium of 28 airlines including Lufthansa, Air Canada, Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways and Swiss and each member airline has a veto in deciding on new members. The alliance has a fleet of over 4,000 aircraft across 181 countries and offers benefits such as seamless transfers to passengers of member airlines across the world, more frequent flyer mileage points, code sharing and access to lounge facilities worldwide.

According to the airline’s estimates, it lost out on about `400 crore annual revenues because of its inability to enter the alliance.
Investments made in preparation for joining — for example, new boarding cards with Star Alliance logo had been printed by July — were also wasted.

In the absence of Alliance’s network benefits, AI has been making efforts to forge individual commercial code share agreements in select markets with individual airlines.