AI to seek Star Alliance fee refund

New Delhi: Air India will talk tough when it meets Star Alliance on the issue of failed membership.
The national carrier will ask Star Alliance to return the amount paid as membership fees. Air India is also planning to ask for a hefty compensation for the sum spent in preparing itself for Star’s membership.
Star Alliance, a global group of 27 international airlines, announced last week that it was suspending Air India’s integration into its network as the carrier had failed to fulfil some norms.
AI officials said they were in talks with Star Alliance officials for a meeting to discuss the reasons of suspension as well as to ask them for a refund.
“The date of the meeting has not been decided as of now but it might happen later this week. Star Alliance officials have said they were considering ways so that they can accommodate AI into the international group. But we are more interested in discussing about compensation as last week’s events have caused us a lot of embarrassment and a major setback,” said an AI official.
The civil aviation ministry will soon start the process of recovering the 10 million euros (Rs 63 crore approximately) as joining fee they had paid. A decision to suspend Air India’s integration with the alliance was jointly taken by 27 member airlines.
09/08/11 Kiran Choudhury/The Telegraph

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Categories: Air India Aug 2011, Foreign Aug 2011