Problems relating to Air India joining the Star Alliance are likely to be discussed by the airline CMD, Arvind Jadhav, who is in Brussels to attend a meeting of the global airlines body.
"Jadhav is in Brussels where Brussels Airlines is joining the Star Alliance. The issue of Air India's entry into Star Alliance is expected to figure in his interactions with the officials," NACIL (National Aviation Company of India Limited) sources told PTI here today.
The national carrier's entry into the Star Alliance was okayed in December 2007, but its formal admission into the elite club of major global airlines has been deferred time and again due to a host of requirments not being fulfilled.
The airline has set a deadline of June 2010 for its formal entry into the alliance, which is an inter-line commercial pact among world carriers to providing passengers wider choices for air travel and related facilities. Other competing alliances are the One World and SkyTeam.
Among the major requirements which Air India has to fulfil is the common flight code, which continues to be AI for Air India and IC for the erstwhile Indian Airlines even two years after their merger. A single code is required for an airline to serve several purposes, including ticketing.
While Air India has claimed that most of the requirements have been fulfilled, another major issue relates to the selection of a new reservation system or PSS, which is "critical" to the process of joining the Star Alliance.
Selection of firms to work on this new system is yet to take place though the tender evaluation was completed two months ago, they said.
