Star Alliance gives Air India 31 July deadline to meet requirements
18 May 2011
San Francisco: Battling innumerable problems, most of it self-created, flag carrier Air India has now been given a deadline of 31 July to meet all requirements as set by Lufthansa-led Star Alliance, a grouping of international airlines. Should it fail to meet the deadline, then arch rival Jet Airways will pip it to the post and assume membership in its place.
Air India has been struggling for the past four years to meet the standards and requirements needed for membership of Star Alliance.
According to Lufthansa CEO, Carsten Spohr, Star Alliance has invited both AI and Jet to join the alliance and will extend a welcome to either of the parties who have met all requirements by 31 July. Spohr made it clear that India being such a huge aviation market the alliance could easily accommodate two big domestic airlines.
He said the alliance would appreciate both Air India and Jet Airways joining it as their membership would benefit air travellers as connectivity in India would increase manifold.
Lufthansa and other carriers are keen on bypassing what they refer to as the artificial hub created in Dubai, which has no traffic of its own. They point out that the largest market for Gulf carriers is India and it was thanks to their (Star Alliance) lack of preparation that has allowed Gulf carriers to walk away with their markets.
Traffic from India converges at Gulf aviation hubs and from there is carried onwards to further destinations in Africa and Europe. For Lufthansa and other European carriers in the Star Alliance having an Indian carrier with a strong domestic network as a member is the only way they can effectively meet the challenge posed by Gulf carriers.
According to Star Alliance CEO Jaan Albrecht, Air India had taken four years to fulfil requirements for joining the alliance and now the 31 July deadline would be final.
Star Alliance has 30 member airlines.
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