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Air India’s integration with Star Alliance to take one year

NEW DELHI: Even after admission to Star Alliance in December last, it will still take another year for Air India to complete all formalities and the integration process before joining the global grouping of 21 airlines.

Passengers on Air India’s international network will enjoy the benefits of luxury lounges at major airports, seamless connections, easy transfers, shared terminals and mileage points.

The national carrier will be the first and only one from India to join Star Alliance, whose members include big global players Lufthansa and Air Canada. All of them together operate nearly 18,000 daily flights criss-crossing hundreds of destinations across the globe.

“The entire process of joining a global alliance like Star Alliance takes some time to complete and in the post-merger scenario we are giving final touches to several areas of our integration,” said Jitender Bhargava, Executive Director (Corporate Communications) of Air India. The airline is also exploring the possibility of picking up either the Munich or Vienna airport for its international hub.

With the recently launched non-stop flights to New York from Delhi and Mumbai — operated by state-of-the-art Boeing 777 aircraft — recording impressive load factors, Air India is now considering starting similar direct services linking Bangalore and San Francisco.

“Air India sees the U.S. as having tremendous potential for growth and we have augmented our flights from a mere 10 a week seven years ago to 38 weekly flights to different destinations,” Mr. Bhargava said.

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