Air India's bid to join the Star Alliance has been grounded after the global airline network said it had not met the minimum standards for membership. The decision to suspend the application, which was approved by the Alliance's board, is a fresh blow to the ailing state carrier, already battling mounting debts and loss of passenger share to private airlines.
One analyst suggested the airline's bid to join the likes of Lufthansa, United, Air Canada and Singapore Airlines was now doomed to fail. "From a broader people, business and financial perspective, it (Air India) doesn't fit in," said Kapil Kaul, from global consultancy the Centre for Asia-Pacific Aviation (CAPA) in New Delhi. "It (the application) is delayed beyond the point of return," he told AFP.
Star Alliance said on its website that the group's 27 members had "jointly concluded that the integration of Air India into the global alliance will be suspended". "This is due to the fact that Air India has not met the minimum joining conditions that were contractually agreed in December 2007," it added in a statement from Frankfurt. Star Alliance chief executive Jaan Albrecht and Air India boss Arvind Jadhav recently reviewed the company's application with India's civil aviation ministry. Albrecht added: "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 orientation.
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