Air India’s improved performance in last 12 months is auguring well for the Indian national carrier. “Air India has received formal invite from Star Alliance to join the alliance. This alliance will give Indian travelers access to much larger network. In next three to four months, Air India will be the part of the star Alliance and the Indian aviation scenario will change completely,” Shyam Sunder, Executive Director – Commercial, Air India, said.
According to him, Air India’s entry into Star Alliance will enable Air India passenger’s to use Star’s facilities like airport lounges, fly on a network of 21,900 daily flights to 1,328 airports in 195 countries and redeem air miles on airlines such as Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, Turkish Airlines and Thai Airways among others. Air India is already aligned to Star Alliance by way of its information technology systems and will need to align nearly 75 “core values” related to passenger services.
According to the release issued by the Star Alliance, Star Alliance member airlines decided unanimously to recommence the integration process with Air India. “Star Alliance has long held the opinion that India is such an important aviation market that it should be fully represented in the Alliance,” said Mark Schwab, CEO, Star Alliance. According to him, the market in India is now showing signs of stabilisation.
“Today we see an Air India which has successfully completed its merger with Indian Airlines and is building up a new fleet that forms the basis for a much improved level of service. This is why we believe the time is now right to recommence the integration process,” he added.
Sunder also informed that Air India is looking at connecting more destinations in Europe. “Our plan is to add Milan, Rome and one more European destination in our network. We will be deploying Dreamliners on international routes,” he said. He further informed that Air India has a share of about 19.5 per cent in domestic market and 16.5 per cent share on international routes. “Star Carriers have a market share of 13.5 percent. By joining Star Alliance, our market share on international routes will be around 30 per cent. Our international load factor is in the range of 72-73 per cent and domestic is about 77-78 per cent,” he concluded.
