Flying will become a different experience for Air India passengers when the airline joins the 26-airline member global Star Alliance. Jeffery Goh, Chief Operating Officer of Star Alliance, and Rohit Nandan, Chairman and Managing Director, Air India, interacted with select media organisations including The Hindu Business Line on what changes a passenger will find.

Edited excerpts from the interaction:

How will life change for an Air India passenger from July 11?

Nandan : I personally feel that the standards of service are still not too bad on Air India. There will be some value addition from July 11. As far as business and first class passengers are concerned, I am sure there will be a visible change. Their check-in will be a completely different experience.

Boarding too will also change from July 11. It will be faster and it will be done row-wise. Premium and first class passengers will get priority which is not there today. Besides, people from Star Alliance will also get priority boarding. The entire protocol of boarding will undergo a change from July 11.

The food service procedures on international flights will also undergo a change. We already have a three-course service in first class. We will now introduce this three-course service in business class as well. It will be on all international flights.

The menu will change. It will have more international content in it. We have hired the Oberoi to do catering for us for business and premium class. The wines too will change. There is a customer service improvement programme which will be implemented from July 11.

Will this change be across the entire Air India network?

Nandan : Yes. We are starting with five cities---- Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad.

Air India has one of the widest connections within the country. So why does Star Alliance feel the need for another airline from India to be a part of the alliance?

Goh : India is a big country and the fact is that it is a fast growing domestic aviation market. That told us that this is the right time to bring Air India in. Apart from the fact that it is a very different company from the one we knew some 5-7 years ago.

The idea of India being a big market and, therefore, keeping our options open is nothing new. We did that in the US--- we had United Airlines and US Airways. Similarly, in China we have China Airways and had Shanghai Airlines until its merger with China Eastern. Today we have Air China and Shenzen Airlines. In significant markets, there are times when we want to keep our options open. In India it is an option; it may never be implemented.

It is important for Star Alliance from a value perspective to keep the option open to ensure that all our members have their needs fulfilled.

Given the deep level of Air India’s penetration and the fact that it is an airline which offers low cost and full service options, do you really see the need to have another partner in India?

Goh : It is difficult to say. In, say, 1-3 years time Air India may expand so significantly that we may never need a second carrier in India.

In which part of the country does Star feel that Air India does not have enough connectivity?

Goh : Hard to say. At the moment we have 13 Alliance member airlines that fly to India. Air India is adding 35 destinations for us. A lot will depend on Air India's business model, its expansion and growth plans and whether that will be sufficient to meet the needs of our members.

What has changed in Air India since 2007 that made the Alliance accept it as a member now?

Goh : The years between 2007-11 were also the early years of merger between Air India and Indian Airlines. It is never easy to merge two airlines. Air India at that time was going through a very difficult time. It was a mutual decision to say “hold this back because you have other priorities to focus on.” We decided to reintegrate because we recognised that India is a very key market. It is the fifth largest domestic market in the world.

Even in the intervening years we continued to monitor Air India; we also carried out customer surveys. Last December, the Chief Executive board decided to make Air India a member based on the fact that it is a different company today.

What does an AI frequent flyer gain from this Alliance?

Goh : One of the key propositions in an Alliance is opportunity to earn and redeem miles across the Alliance. So if you are an Air India frequent flyer programme member today and if you fly with any of the 26 Alliance airline members you will be able to earn and redeem your miles on any of them.

For a FFP member, that is a very strong value proposition. There are also tiers for FFP members and if you are a gold card member you can board with first and business and have your bags delivered first even in economy class. There is also more baggage allowance and access to lounges. We have over a 1,000 lounges.

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