Air India set to join Star Alliance Friday

Air India will formally join global airline agreement Star Alliance Friday, a senior airline official said.

"Air India will formally join the alliance from Thursday midnight. The tickets issuance under the star brand name will also start from the time," a senior airline official told IANS.

According to the official, the airline will be inducted as a member in the group in a ceremony to be hosted here Friday.

Earlier, the board of the 26-member Star Alliance had agreed to allow Air India into its fold at a meeting in London.

The Star Alliance, through its 13-member airlines which operate in India to 10 destinations, accounts for a total share of 13 percent of India's to and fro market. The inclusion of Air India in the alliance will take this share to about 30 percent.

Air India will become the 27th member after a wait of nearly seven years.

Joining the alliance will bring in immediate benefits for Air India's frequent fliers as they will be able to access lounges the world over and single-ticket travel across airlines and other such facilities.

Most of the passengers on Air India's flights to the US and Europe do not get connecting flights to other destinations which are farther apart.

This will change as other Star Alliance members will be able to provide single ticket travel to these destinations on their flights.

Air India has also become the only airline from India to have joined a global inter-line pact -- the other two inter-line pacts are of oneworld and SkyTeam.

The arrangement is the largest among the three global interline unions with a total airline membership of 26 with 21,900 daily flights to 1,328 airports in 195 countries.