Star Alliance Top Brass To Meet Today To Decide On Inducting Air India

The top brass of Star Alliance will meet in London today (Monday) to take a decision on inducting Air India into the 26-member global airlines' group which, if okayed, would facilitate seamless travel to more than 1,200 destinations for the national carrier.

It is likely that Star Alliance chief executive board (CEB) would endorse the induction of Air India, paving the way for the integration of all its systems, including ticket booking and flight scheduling, into the global network.

The membership would also end Air India's seven-year wait to access the alliance's global network of more than 18,000 daily flights to 1,269 airports across 193 countries. The member airlines of Star Alliance together own 4,338 aircraft and carry 640 million passengers a year.

The induction is also expected to have several benefits for the airline and its passengers like an increase in Air India's share on the India-US route by 20% from 13% at present.

Earlier, Star Alliance CEO Mark Schwab had said it had long held that India was such an important aviation market that it should be fully represented.

Observing that the Indian market was now showing signs of recovery, he had said, “Today we see an Air India which has successfully merged with Indian Airlines and is building up a new fleet that forms the basis for a much improved level of service."

The national carrier was accepted as a future member of Star Alliance in December 2007. But the integration process was deferred in July 2011 to allow Air India to focus on completing its merger with Indian Airlines before inducting it into the alliance network.