"A Star Alliance Team will arrive here on December 18. They will carry out gap analysis. I am working on a very tight schedule on a day-to-day basis. The entire process is likely to take three-four months but it will depend on what they would require," AI CMD Rohit Nandan told PTI on arrival from Vienna today.
Gap analysis is a technique that businesses use to determine the steps needed to be taken to move from the current state to the desired future state. In this case, it would be blending Air India's network with that of the 28- member Star Alliance.
"The re-integration process will begin now. There have been some fresh requirements brought into the structure since 2011. We will have to do a gap analysis to integrate with the system," Air India officials said.
The integration process involves integration of the airline's flight network, booking systems, matching of frequent flyer programmes and access to lounges in home countries of the airline, among other things.
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Passengers would get a wider choice of flights, earn frequent flyer mileage points and gain access to over 1,000 alliance members' lounges while flying on the entire Star Alliance network.
The network offers 21,900 daily flights to 1,328 airports in 195 countries. Among its 28 members are airlines like Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, Air Canada, Air China, Air New Zealand, ANA, South African Airways, Austrian, THAI, Turkish Airlines, United Airlines and US Airways.