Air India may meet Star Alliance deadlines
11 Jun 2011
New Delhi: Indications are that badly struggling, state-owned carrier, Air India, will meet all deadlines to join Star Alliance, a global consortium of airlines, in July. If it meets the final deadline then it would be joining the body nearly 18-months late.
The delay has cost the national carrier dearly as it has lost out on enhanced revenues that such an alliance generates for member airlines and also failed to make any use of a joining fee of euro 10 million which it paid to the grouping.
Eighteen months down the line the airline will also have missed out any potential first-mover advantage of joining an alliance as rival Kingfisher Airlines has started integration with OneWorld and Jet Airways negotiating with SkyTeam and Star Alliance.
Star Alliance extended an invitation to Air India to join the 27-member airline grouping in December 2007 but delay in having a single code for erstwhile Indian Airlines and Air India and migration to an integrated reservation system among others caused the flag carrier to miss a number of deadlines.
Integration with the Star Alliance network is expected to boost revenues annually by 10-15%. It would also help the carrier reduce cost as it would share airport infrastructure with Star Alliance members.
As part of the network, Air India will be able to provide seamless travel to its customers, who will be able to travel from one continent to another on a single boarding pass.
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