A global alliance, but is it made in heaven?

When a team from Star Alliance inspected Air India’s facilities in 2014, it was pleasantly surprised. The Indian airline had asked to join the international alliance and the inspection was part of the process. But few in the team had expected Air India (AI) to do as well as it did in the tests whose exact date and time were kept a secret until the last moment. The team decided to do another round of checks the next day. The Indian airline came out with flying colours once again and there was nothing to prevent it from becoming a member.

The announcement in London a few weeks later that Air India had been admitted as the 27th Star Alliance member was a mere formality. This incident in many ways sums up the impression of Air India globally.

But a year after being a part of the international Star Alliance, which operate more than 18,500 daily departures and serves 193 countries around the globe, there are many who are not satisfied with what Air India has to offer — at least going by the tweets of passengers.

Take the case of Aravind Ganesh V who tweeted: “when compared to the kind of on board service other members of Star Alliance are offering Air India is a disgrace to the alliance” or MarC R F Delhem who tweeted: “customer service is either unknown or a blacklisted word with Air India. This is so not Star Alliance like.”

Consumers, though a significant focus area for any airline, are not the only ones who have problems with AI. At a recent conference, Mark Schwab, Chief Executive Officer of Star Alliance, praised the progress made by AI as a part of Star Alliance but said, “Many – not yet all – of the people in Air India have understood what it means to be a player in the global aviation arena.”

However, there is little denying that AI still remains the only Indian carrier to be part of a global airline alliance.

In AI’s case this is no mean achievement as it won membership to the international club after years of trying. In September 2002, British Airways’ CEO, Rod Eddington met the then Civil Aviation Minister Shahnawaz Hussain and discussed the possibility of Air India joining oneworld, an alliance of which British Airways is a member. A short while later, Skyteam invited Air India to join its alliance. The then Chairman of Air India, K Roy Paul was invited to Paris to meet with the Skyteam alliance members. But all these initiatives died a natural death.

Even the final membership in Star Alliance was not a cakewalk for AI. The process of integration started in 2007 but Air India was found falling short of the stringent stipulations.

The AI team, however, maintains that everything is hunky dory between the airline and the alliance. In fact, it also believes that both the airline and the other members of the alliance have benefited. For instance, Pankaj Srivastava, Commercial Director, Air India gives an example of how customer experience for passengers have improved. “Suppose a premium passenger based in Chennai wants to go to Addis Ababa. He can reach through a one-stop via Delhi with the combination of Air India and Ethiopian Airlines,” he pointed out, adding that the passenger will check-in for the late evening flight from Chennai, get a lay-over in Delhi where the airline will provide amenities like sleep beds, shower and so on, in the Air India lounge.

Air India estimates that over 16,000 of its frequent flyer club members have used Star Alliance member carrier lounges worldwide. “Whether Flying Return (the brand name of the AI frequent flyer programme) passengers are in Auckland or in Panama city (Air India does not have direct flights to both these cities) they can enjoy lounge facilities at no extra cost,” said Srivastava.

Besides, the integration has also helped the Maharaja’s bottomline. Srivastava said the total number of passengers transferred by Star Alliance carriers to Air India grew 113 per cent with a revenue increase of about 123 per cent from such transferred traffic during the first nine months of the integration.

Even Star Alliance partners are beginning to feel the advantages of having AI as a member of the alliance. Wolfgang Will, Director, South Asia, Lufthansa, told BusinessLine that the airline had seen a significant increase in passengers transferring from Air India to Lufthansa.

Schwab adds that at last count, the exchange of passengers between Air India and the other members of the Star Alliance family had seen growth rates of over 30 per cent.

But what about the voices of discontent about AI’s performance? An old-time industry watcher sums it up best when he says, “It is the karma of alliances that one airline does not talk ill of another,” leaving a lot to be read in between the lines. Perhaps this is something that Air India needs to pay heed to.