Scrolling through my regular reading list this afternoon I came across an interesting piece from AeroBlogger, a blog focused on the Indian aviation market. Apparently a story was published in an Indian newspaper this week in which a senior Jet Airways executive, speaking on condition of anonymity, suggested that joining Star Alliance was not in the best interests of the carrier:
We are talking to all three alliances and may not join Star Alliance because they already have a strong member in this side of the world. We do not know how much will we benefit by joining the alliance with Singapore already a member. There is a thinking that the benefits will not be much from Star Alliance and our talks with the other two airline alliances is also on.
Jet Airways was invited to join Star Alliance a while back but was forced by the Indian government to wait until Air India was able to join. They kept waiting for a few years until just over a year ago when the Air India membership in the alliance was formally put "on hold" by the alliance. SkyTeam and oneworld have both also tried to add a partner in the region. Most recently the efforts of oneworld were thwarted when their candidate member Kingfisher hit significant financial troubles just days prior to their intended entry date.
Maybe one of the other two alliances has made a bold, last-minute effort to lure Jet away from Star Alliance. Or maybe they really believe that competition with Singapore Airlines really is so great that the partnership won’t actually work so well. The latter seems quite unlikely to me, but maybe they really do believe it.
Related Posts:
- Star Alliance courting Jet Airways. Again.
- Kingfisher suspended from IATA clearinghouse, delayed from oneworld
- Star Alliance, Air India link "on hold"
- Air India: Shining Star or Black Hole?
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Or it’s face saving for their bosses in the backwards Indian government (‘they won’t let us do it but we’re afraid to speak against them publicly’).
Gary, It’s not even the GoI anymore, it’s purely Jet thinking its more than its actually worth.
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/ais-star-dream-ends/482772/
What are the terms *A sets for a new member to join?
Could this just be a negotiating ploy by Jet to get the terms improved?
Jet would be a strong addition to *A!