Attaining Stardom!

July 11 this year marked a new beginning for Air India when the national carrier was formally inducted as a member of Star Alliance.

In response to an invitation to join the prestigious Star Alliance, Air India, the flag bearer of the nation, had, on December 13, 2007, initiated in right earnest, the process of integration with the Alliance. However, the national carrier was in for a rude shock when after more than three years of dilly-dallying, the management of the airline was informed by Jaan Albrecht, CEO of Star Alliance, that Air India failed to meet with the standards required for it to be acceptable to the Alliance. The somewhat terse note to the management conveying the decision by Board of Star Alliance was couched in diplomatic nicety and read “With the collective decision to put the integration efforts on hold today we aim to contribute to Air India’s flexibility to concentrate on its ongoing strategic reorientation. In this process our member carriers will continue to provide assistance to Air India wherever required.” Incidentally, this was the first case wherein an airline was rejected after having been specifically invited to join the Alliance. Apart from the snub to Air India, denial of membership to the national carrier was a serious embarrassment for the Government of India that owns the airline. However, this action on the part of Star Alliance meant that the entry of Jet Airways into the Alliance was also blocked for the time being.

Formed in 1997, Star Alliance is the largest of the three such airline alliances existing in the world, the other two being SkyTeam and Oneworld. Star Alliance is a consortium of 26 airlines from all continents across the globe except Antarctica. Some of the major carriers that enjoy membership of the Alliance are Lufthansa, Air Canada, Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways and Swiss International Airlines. The airlines who are members of Star Alliance together have a total of 4,338 aircraft on their inventory and fly 640 million passengers annually. Operating with a very weak international network, the advantages to Air India of securing membership of the Alliance therefore were obvious. Membership of Star Alliance would immediately provide the national carrier access to the Alliance’s global network of 18,000 daily flights to 1,269 airports in 193 countries, enable the airline to enter into partnerships with other Star Alliance member airlines and provide the facility of seamless travel to passengers apart from a number of other benefits.

The reason why integration of Air India with Star Alliance was placed on hold has never been clearly stated by the Alliance nor will it ever be. Although Air India claimed that it had done everything that it was required to do to fulfil the requirements for membership, objective assessment indicated that there could have been issues with the Airline. The maladies that Air India was afflicted with was not a closely guarded secret. These included doubtful brand reputation, excessive government interference, labour disputes, financial turmoil, poor customer service, insipid marketing, unimpressive on-time performance and ineffective management.

After the membership of Air India was placed on hold by Star Alliance, the relationship between the two was considerably strained. In September 2013, Air India made a fresh bid to join Star Alliance. In the interim, what had followed was hectic behind-the-scene activity including lobbying through Lufthansa and some arm-twisting by the Ministry of Civil Aviation as well of the German carrier that was expected to facilitate the entry of Air India into Start Alliance. While Air India has indeed embarked on a turnaround plan, the results are yet to be convincingly visible. However, Air India claimed that the minimum requirements for entry into Star Alliance had been completed and the rest related to information technology aspect, was to be in place by the middle of 2013.

The discrete efforts on different fronts did have the desired effect to turn the image of the airline around as was evident in a statement by the CEO of Star Alliance Mark Schwab who, after a board meeting with member-airlines, said: “The market in India is now showing signs of stabilisation. Today, we see an Air India that has successfully completed its merger with Indian Airlines and is building a new fleet that forms the basis of a much improved level of service. This is why we believe the time is now right to recommence the integration process.”

July 11 this year marked a new beginning for the Air India when the national carrier was formally inducted as the 27th member of Star Alliance. This day is indeed auspicious for Air India as it marks the day on which the national carrier finally succeeded in its efforts at integration with the prestigious international group of airlines.