Air-India set to get Star Alliance tag on Dec 13

The announcement of Air-India's induction into the Star Alliance, which has 17 airlines as members and one of the oldest and the largest airline alliances, is likely to be made on December 13 in Beijing.

Air China will be the other airline which will join the alliance, said an Air-India executive, who did not want to be named.

The membership will allow code sharing, splitting of the traffic to other destinations and coordinated flight schedules with other airlines on a single ticket special fares among the members.

The announcement is significant as Air-India will decide its European hub based on the formal induction into the alliance. However, executives in the airlines and the civil aviation ministry were tightlipped about the European hub.

Air India, according to airline sources, has not been able to get the desired slot at the Heathrow Airport in London and in Paris due to congestion. It will now not use Heathrow for transit traffic and instead use another European city.

"We need a partner airline which is also a strong base airline in that particular hub to have maximum number of flights," said an Air-India executive.

The strong presence of Lufthansa , one of the founding members with nine affiliates, can be one of the factors leading Air India to decide on the Munich airport.

The fact that Air-India already has a cooperation agreement with the airline and can further leverage it if the Munich airport is chosen as the hub.

But if aviation experts like Kapil Kaul are to be believed, Vienna would be the likely choice as it is one of the top airports in the region and is being upgraded currently to augment capacity.