New liaison

New Delhi, Aug. 22: SkyTeam — the world’s No. 2 international airline alliance — has approached Air India with a membership offer following Star Alliance’s decision to keep out the national carrier from the global grouping.

According to officials in the ministry of civil aviation, the SkyTeam delegation, led by managing director Michael Wisbrun, met civil aviation secretary Nasim Zaidi last week and expressed interest in making the national carrier part of its alliance.

In the aftermath of the Star Alliance fiasco, Air India has been approached by both SkyTeam as well as Oneworld with membership proposals and the offer to help the national carrier improve its international operations.

“SkyTeam is one of the alliances that have approached us. Thanks to our preparations to join Star Alliance, we revamped our working on a par with the standards of any international body. We do not have any problems in joining SkyTeam and will consider its proposal seriously. But at the same time we are open to talks with Star Alliance if they want to restart a dialogue,” a senior ministry official said.

SkyTeam — founded in 2000 by Aeroméxico, Air France, Delta Air Lines and Korean Air — is the last of the three airline alliances to be formed.

It has grown to become the second largest global alliance in terms of passengers and members, behind Star Alliance and ahead of Oneworld.

The alliance consists of 14 carriers, including Al Italia, KLM and Delta Air Lines, from four continents and flies to 916 airports in 169 countries. It operates over 14,000 daily flights with a combined fleet of 3,400 aircraft, including associate carriers.

It has 465 lounges worldwide to serve its 474 million annual passengers. SkyTeam also runs a separate cargo alliance — SkyTeam Cargo — which partners nine carriers who are all SkyTeam members.