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Aviation alliances Skyteam and
OneWorld looking at Indian carriers
12 June, 2007:
The Indian airline space is being seen
as bullish by two global airline
alliances, says a report. The
alliances, SkyTeam and OneWorld, have
in fact kicked off preliminary
discussions with Indian carriers to
attract them into their respective
teams, the report added.
According to a SkyTeam official, the
alliance has already held discussions
with Air India, Jet Airways, and
Kingfisher about joining the alliance.
The alliance feels that the potential
of having an Indian airline in the
alliance has grown and an Indian
airline would join the SkyTeam. The
alliance has made it a priority to
finalise discussions with Indian
carriers and select a partner, the
report added.
Meanwhile, industry observers feel
that the Indian aviation industry is
currently going through a phase of
consolidation. The Jet-Sahara deal was
followed by the Air India-Indian
merger and then the Kingfisher-Air
Deccan deal. They believe that the
aviation scene in India would take at
least three to four years to stabilise.
This in turn would in effect dictate
the alliance partnerships, it is
learnt. The SkyTeam has ten airlines
as members including Aeroflot, Air
France, Alitalia, Continental
Airlines, KLM and Northwest Airlines,
while OneWorld has members like
British Airways, American Airlines,
Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines,
Qantas, and Royal Jordanian.
However, going by aviation industry
reports, state-owned Air India has
already declared its intention of
joining the third group, Star
Alliance. Analysts see India, China
and Brazil as potential growth markets
and the global airline alliances are
expected to see more participation
from these nations.
Adding to the prospects, another major
alliance, OneWorld, has said that the
huge local and regional market coming
up in the Indian subcontinent would
have to be considered when thinking of
an extending the alliance. With India
soon to become a major aviation hub in
the next two to five years, the
potential for an alliance is high.
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