Airliners-India.com

karatecatman · Guest

Oneworld bides its time in India
http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2007/03/19/212769/oneworld-bides-its-time-in-india.html

Not a very new article.

andrew · Member Joined: 24 Apr 2007 Posts: 212

The CEO of AI has indicated in the press last week that post merger they will soon join an alliance. In 2006/06 Star Alliance had murmured to the effect that AI was going to join but was being delayed by internal procedures. The article above makes the same indication.

Its interesting that in the article, the bloke form One World makes strong hints that they are still very open to AI IC coming on board - if they did, they would be the weakest airlines in terms of service and reliability (bar AA) that are in the One World Group.

One would think that 9W is a natural fit for One World. However, the 9W CEO indicated at the launch event in Belgium this week that they are in no hurry to join any alliance at present - indicating that they have perhaps spurned One World advances, leading them to AI/IC instead.

Its expensive to be part of the alliance and you need a strong international network to justify the cost. Makes sense only for AI at present on the Indian aviation front.....

Interestingly, at most airports, 9W is in the One World section (BOM/ SIN/ LHR...)