AI sets dec target with IA for IT integration

Mithun Roy, Mumbai
The Economic Times

National carrier Air India is looking at a December deadline for completing the integration of its information technology systems with the erstwhile Indian Airlines in order to get included into the Lufthansa-led Star Alliance club. Top executives at Air India, including its CMD Arvind Jadhav, held a meeting on Monday in Mumbai on this issue.

Star Alliance is the oldest such club of international carriers that allows members to share codes and use each others’ maintenance and parking infrastructure. Other alliances of similar nature are One World and SkyTeam.

Air India has already met 79 joining requirements. The biggest obstacle for Air India in becoming a part of the Star Alliance is the absence of same flight code between Air India and Indian Airlines. At present, AI and IA continue to operate under different codes.

A senior Air India official, who attended the meeting, said Air India was working towards a common IT platform for air tickets reservations, which would result in savings of hundreds of crores annually. The IT integration has been pending for the past six quarters, but it should be finalised soon, the official added.

This is at a time when Nacil (National Aviation Company of India) is incurring a loss of Rs 15 crore each day. Nacil is the holding company formed in 2007 after the merger of Air India and Indian Airlines. The Air India spokesperson confirmed that an internal meeting on the Star Alliance took place on Monday, but declined to elaborate, saying it was an internal issue.

Civil aviation minister Praful Patel, last month, had expressed concerns over the delay in completing the merger process between Air India and Indian Airlines, apart from other key integration issues.