[新聞] IndiGo a dark horse for Star Alliance

看板Aviation (航空板)作者vallier (je t'aime encore)時間13年前 (2013/06/08 02:02)推噓1(1推 0噓 9→)

留言10則, 5人參與討論串1/1

link： http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-06-04/news/39740940_1_long- island-expressway-bayside-hills-civic-association-oakland-gardens CAPE TOWN: Budget carrier IndiGo has emerged as a dark horse for Star Alliance, a 27-airline grouping, which continues to woo Jet Airways to join it, but remains silent on its five-year old deliberations to induct Air India into its fold. Airline groupings such as Star Alliance usually give a wide berth to budget carriers, but IndiGo, being the market leader in the Indian market, makes it difficult for any alliance to ignore it. Star Alliance is still keen on Jet Airways in spite of the airline's recent equity deal with Gulf carrier Etihad, while it opened talks with IndiGo, alliance's CEO Mark Schwab told ET. "We still believe that India is a big enough market and that two members of Star Alliance in India would make a lot of sense. We have more than one partner-carrier in many regions or countries in the world...We continue to dialogue with Jet. Conversation has been going on for some time and we continue to have them," Schwab said. Meanwhile, Star Alliance has also kept other Indian options open. "Indigo is a possible candidate. Leadership of IndiGo is probably not thinking about alliance-membership at this stage. It is a question better asked of them... We are holding on to our two-carrier desire in India. So, you have to talk to anybody who is a possible candidate, absolutely. Name a carrier in India and it is a possible candidate," Schwab said. However, Air India, which had started the process to get alliance membership in 2008 and was put on hold in 2011 due to the airline's financial and labour problems, has still not found headway to its dreams. The airline has already paid 10 million ( 63 crore approximately) as joining fee to Star Alliance, whose membership was expected to boost Air India's revenues by giving it access to more traffic and destinations. "We are still on the path of having suspended integration with Air India some time ago and we are talking to them regularly, but there is no specific time-frame that we are working for...We are continuing to dialogue with the management teams there...we are talking to them about continuing improvement of operations of the company," he said. Even five years down the line and in spite of repeated entreaties by Air India, Schwab did not commit a time-frame for the induction of the national carrier, for which alliance membership was touted as part of its turnaround plan. While Star Alliance has maintained that Air India's induction was suspended, as it did not meet the contractually-agreed minimum joining requirements, the airline has been continuously denying any unpreparedness on its part. At the time of suspension of Air India's membership in 2011, the government's version was that Star Alliance tried to arm-twist Indian officials at the last moment making Air India's membership subject to allowing rival Jet Airways to be part of the grouping first. The civil aviation ministry under Ajit Singh also feels that a lot of benefits were given to German carrier Lufthansa, the founder member of Star Alliance, as it promised to mentor AI for partnership. (The author is in Cape Town at the invitation of IATA) ========== 這場星空寶萊塢劇情變化萬千...不知道結局會是什麼.... -- ※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc) ◆ From: 123.192.248.236