Air India's induction into Star Alliance now hangs in balance. Sources indicated on Thursday that some of the 27 members of Star Alliance are opposed to Air India joining the global airline alliance.
This poses a problem for Air India as it won't be able to join the alliance even if one of the airlines decides to vote against including Air India in Star Alliance.
“The Chief Executive Board of Star Alliance will meet on Sunday to vote on the issues. We will get to know the result by Monday morning. As of now, our induction date has been postponed for a couple of weeks. After finding out the result of the voting, we will be notified of the induction date,” said an official of the national carrier.
July 31 deadline
Air India had been given July 31 as the deadline for meeting the requirements for joining Star Alliance. Airline officials said that these requirements have been met. 1
Star Alliance officials met Air India and Civil Aviation Ministry officials last week and said that the meetings were “progressive”.
Air India was supposed to join the alliance in July after an 18-month delay. The airline has already paid € 10 million (Rs 63 crore approximately) as joining fee. Joining the alliance is expected to boost the airline's revenues by 10-15 per cent as it would be able to reduce costs on airport infrastructure.
Passenger service system
The new Passenger Service System of Air India will also enable passengers to redeem their accrued mileage points on other Star Alliance carriers and vice versa.
Star Alliance, which has leading carriers such as Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines as its members, had also received requests from Jet Airways to join the global alliance. The alliance was formed in 1997, has 27 member airlines, including Air Canada, Thai Airways and Swiss, which jointly have a fleet of more than 4,000 aircraft serving 181 countries with 21,000 daily flights.