A
year after Air India failed to join the Star Alliance, the government on
Tuesday said it would soon initiate talks with German carrier Lufthansa to
adhere to its plan to mentor the national carrier to join the global airline
group.
The
27-airline grouping, which is the largest alliance, had in July last year put
on hold Air India’s integration on grounds that it did not meet the minimum
joining requirements as stipulated in the contract signed in 2007. The national
carrier had denied this.
“We
are going to talk to Lufthansa to adhere to the plan we had to join the
alliance. The government gave a lot of facilities to the (German) airline that
was mentoring us to join Star Alliance. Meanwhile, Air India also had some
problems. But now they are over,” Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said on
Tuesday at the Economic Editors Conference here.
“Now
we are going to talk to Lufthansa to adhere to the plan we had,” he said,
adding that Lufthansa got a lot of flights into India in exchange for mentoring
Air India.
Entry
into the alliance would give a boost to Air India as it would be able to offer
seamless travel to customers, usage of frequent flier points redeemable with
any member airline and global connectivity. Star Alliance network offers 21,200
daily flights to 1,356 airports in 193 nations.
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/govt-to-hold-talkslufthansaair-india-joining-star-alliance/489091/
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