Representatives of Star Alliance and Air India will soon meet Ministry of Civil Aviation officials to inform them of the progress the national carrier is making in joining the global airline alliance.

The meeting will also finalise the date of Air India's formal entry into Star Alliance.

Members of the global alliance met with Air India's Chairman and Managing Director, Mr Arvind Jadhav, over the weekend.

“In a meeting of the Star Alliance's Chief Executives Board at Barcelona on June 3, the Star Alliance GmbH will appraise the readiness of Air India to join Star Alliance within July 31, 2011,” said an Air India spokesperson.

“Air India is looking forward to join Star Alliance as scheduled,” said Mr Jadhav in a statement.

Star Alliance, which has leading carriers like Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines as its members, has given the final deadline to the ailing national carrier to fulfil all requirements by then to join the global grouping.

It was formed in 1997 and has 27 member airlines including Air Canada, Thai Airways and Swiss, which jointly have a fleet of more than 4,000 aircraft serving 181 countries.

Star Alliance has certain minimum joining requirements, which involve development and testing of systems and procedures to harmonise the product with other member airlines, including having a single airline code.

Air India, which recently merged the two codes IC (for erstwhile Indian Airlines) and AI (for Air India) into AI, has a fleet size of 127 aircraft.

Four years have passed since Star Alliance first mooted Air India as a prospective member. Full membership was supposed to have become a reality by last year but was delayed due to various reasons, including not having a single code for domestic and international operations.

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