Air India is back to Lufthansa for Star Alliance again

You have to give it to Air India, they are making an attempt unparalleled in history to join an alliance. When they had the ball in their court, they just wouldn’t move fast enough and took 4 long years getting ready for integration.

As a result, last year Air India was given the boot from Star Alliance, making them the first airline ever to be thrown out before joining. Jet Airways was extended the official invite to join the alliance instead.

Now, Air India has gone back to Lufthansa for the nth time to ask for their assistance in getting into the little circle of airlines. This has been reported by Reuters today.

India plans to ask Germany’s Lufthansa AG to help Air India join Star Alliance, aviation minister Ajit Singh said on Tuesday, as it renews its push to become a member of the airlines network after failing to do so last year.

I would have imagined, given the recent developments with the Gulf Carriers, Air India would begin to understand that individual partnerships could make significant difference to the fortune of an airline, rather than chasing something that is long gone. Or maybe they still believe that the days of the alliances are unlimited, and Air India would still be useful to Star Alliance. It is this inflexibility and lack of market savvyness from the airline, that is responsible in part for their downfall so far!

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Comments

Jimgotkp says:

October 9, 2012 at 9:27 am

Maybe they should offer a better product that’s consistent while fixing their finances.

Whitney says:

October 9, 2012 at 7:43 am

I don’t mind AI joining as long as 9W could join as well. 9W is THE crown jewel.

Only minor issue is that now that Kingfisher is nearly officially dead, the Big 2 Indian carriers both being in Star might raise slight anti-trust ire. (both they could mitigate that by claiming oneworld has partnerships with all 3 of the Gulf carriers too)