Missed Flight

to retain separate identities and help each other find passengers. After all, few things are as perishable as an airline seat. Best to somehow fill it than let it fly empty.

The deal announced on Wednesday between Lufthansa, United Airlines of the US, SAS of Scandinavia, Air Canada and Thai Airways needs to be seen in this perspective. It is a device by which these airlines, representing strengths in different continents, have decided to pool their resources. Better, they have argued, to fly together than to lose separately. The traffic and financial implications of this have not yet been announced, but one thing is certain: this spells bad news for Air India and other inefficient airlines like it.

 

It is interesting to note that Air India too is contemplating entering into such an alliance. Nothing wrong with that, except the success or failure of such an arrangement will depend crucially on the choice of partners. This simple fact appears to have eluded Air India, which has been sounded out not just by Lufthansa and British Airways last year but also by United. But for reasons best known to itself, Air India has spurned these overtures. Instead, it is reported that it would like to tie up with Air France, Continental of the US, Swissair, Emirates and Singapore Airlines. Well, whats wrong with that, one may wonder. Just this. Air France, like Air India is a state-owned airline and in deep financial trouble. Continental has come out of bankruptcy but is still doing poorly. Emirates is too small to matter, as is Swissair. And Singapore Airlines is hardly going to look at India after the Tata-SIA fiasco. In other words, the idea is unlikely to fly.

It would be far better, if Air India is serious about regaining its old position in the market, for the airline to reinvent itself by getting rid of the bureaucratic culture which has ruined it. But for that to happen, there must be political will. That is lacking and unlikely to come forth in the near future.