Air India set to join Star Alliance

State-owned carrier Air India is set to join Star Alliance, one of the leading groups of international airlines, as a part of its global expansion plans. "We would be making a formal announcement on joining an international alliance in December," Air India CMD V Thulasidas said. Although he declined to name the alliance, sources said AI was on course to join the Star Alliance and a non-disclosure agreement has been signed. Thulasidas said the decision to join an alliance was taken before the proposal to merge of AI and Indian was mooted. He said joining the international alliance would help the carrier increase its load factor by 5-6 per cent. "It would also help us in getting a much wider coverage across the world through member airlines of the alliance," he added.

Air India had been conducting due diligence to join an international alliance in order to strengthen its global position. Currently there are three major alliances in the world--Oneworld, SkyTeam and Star. Star Alliance has Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, Air Canada and United Airlines among others as its members. He said, while Air India would be joining the alliance on its own, post-merger the new entity would become member of the alliance. Commenting on the merger of the two state-owned carriers, Thulasidas said the EGOM was likely to take a formal decision at its meeting to be held later this week. He also ruled out any retrenchment or downsizing of staff as a result of the merger.

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