This week we are looking at a story we released on December 16, 2013 about Air India and their attempt at joining Star Alliance.

Read the original story here: Air India Sets Sights on Star

After both Star Alliance and Air India concluded in July 2011 that the integration of the airline into the global airline alliance would be suspended, the Chief Executives of the Star Alliance member airlines decided unanimously to recommence the integration process with Air India.

The decision to suspend the integration came after the Indian carrier had failed to meet the minimum joining conditions that were contractually agreed in December 2007.

“Star Alliance has long held the opinion that India is such an important aviation market that it should be fully represented in the Alliance,” said Mark Schwab, chief executive officer, Star Alliance. “However the level of change in the domestic market in recent years did not make it easy for an airline to become an alliance member.”

The integration process was recommenced after the airline apparently showed signs of stabilisation. The airline completed its merger with Indian Airlines, and began building up a new fleet.

So a year on, has the airline successfully managed to complete its integration into the global airline alliance?

In July this year (2014) Star Alliance welcomed Air India as a full member of its global family of airlines. Alongside 26 other Star Alliance member airlines, Air India no offers all Star Alliance customer benefits across its network.

“This is an important day for us. We have said for many years that we needed a strong home carrier in the Indian market and by welcoming Air India to our Star Alliance family, we have achieved this goal” said Star Alliance Chief Executive Mark Schwab. “We know that the ‘new’ Air India is looking forward to providing the Star Alliance customer benefits to many more travellers.”

Air India adds a total of 400 daily flights and over 40 new destinations in India to the Alliance network. The biggest growth will come from its home market which has up to now been served by 13 Star Alliance members flying to 10 destinations and holding a 13% market share.

Rohit Nandan, Air India Chairman and Managing Director said, “Air India is proud to be a member of this prestigious airline Alliance. From today, we open up a completely different world for our passengers, who can now travel to over 1,300 destinations right across the network and enjoy world-class service, better connectivity and seamless travel wherever they go.”

By chance, the one year anniversary of this story was marked by Air India playing host this week to the first ever Star Alliance Chief Executive Board Meeting (CEB) held in India with Nandan highlighting that that for Air India membership in Star Alliance is a key pillar of the airline’s turnaround strategy, along with the fleet renewal, network optimisation and an initiative to improve quality of service.

After nearly half a year in the Alliance, Air India has already seen positive effects from its membership. The airline has seen an increase of 33% in the number of passengers transferring between Air India and other Star Alliance member carriers, mainly through Delhi or Mumbai but also at other airports such as London or Newark.

Frequent Flyers are also taking advantage of the Alliance benefits, with over 80,000 having earned miles while flying on Air India since July and more than 20,000 Air India Flying Returns FFP members having miles credited for flights on other Star Alliance member carriers.

Air India sees further opportunities to increase transfer traffic in Delhi and Mumbai and is working with Star Alliance, the member carriers and the airport operators to provide more connecting flights and ease the transfer process at the Subcontinent’s main hubs.

Nandan further commented that he was optimistic that Heathrow Airport would look positively on Air India’s request to join the other 23 Star Alliance member carriers now operating out of the new Terminal 2 – the Queen’s Terminal. “London is our main destination in Europe and anything we can do to offer better transfer facilities would be a real gain for us and Star Alliance,” he said.