Code-share agreements with Star Alliance members soon: AI

National carrier Air India today said it expects to put-in place code-share partnerships with most member airlines of the Star Alliance grouping by March next year.

"We are looking at closer interaction with member airlines. By March (2015), we aim at having code-share agreements with most Star Alliance member airlines," said AI chairman and managing director, Rohit Nandan.

Nandan, along with Star Alliance chief executive Mark Schwab and Chief Executive Board (CEB) chairman Calin Rovinescu, who is also the President and CEO of Air Canada, was addressing the media after the conclusion of the two-day CEB meeting in the national capital.

This was the first time that the CEB meet took place in India following the entry of AI as the 27th member of the elite global airlines' club in July this year. Nandan said that AI has signed a code-share agreement with Air Canada besides MOUs recently with Avianca and EVA Air.

"The focus will now be on geographies such as Africa and South America," he said. He said that AI has been vastly improving its performance parameters in all the areas by constantly upgrading its service standards.

The airline has seen a growth of 33 percent in the number of passengers transferring between AI and other Star Alliance member carriers through both domestic airports, including Delhi and Mumbai, as well as international airports such as London and Newark, he said.

"AI's membership of Star Alliance is a key pillar of the airline's turnaround strategy along with fleet renewal, network optimisation and an initiative to improve quality of service," Nandan said. Terming the partnership with AI a "high quality" alliance, Schwab said the level of cooperation was progressively increasing between the airline and the other Star Alliance member.

"India is the world's fifth-largest domestic aviation market and will continue to grow both domestically and internationally. It is, therefore, essential for Star Alliance to have a strong presence in this market," he said.

He also said that the downgrade of India's aviation safety mechanism by the US aviation regulator FAA would not have any impact on AI's proposed code-share agreements with the Star Alliance members.

AI said it has also enhanced the global Star Alliance Frequent Flyers' Programme (FFP) proposal, which now offers passengers the possibility to collect and redeem miles on a worldwide network of 18,500 daily flights, serving 1,321 destinations in 193 countries.

A recent addition to the network includes AeroGal of Ecuador which, as part of the Avianca Group, now extends the Alliance's network in Latin America to such exotic destinations as the Galapagos Islands.

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

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