Air India/ Indian Airlines also had a close relationship with AF pre Lufthansa The popular perception is that Skyteam is the third choice alliance in terms of quality of airlines, network and offerings to Elites. The same is true of AI in the Indian market, empirically -- it is the third choice Indian full service carrier. So Skyteam should be a good fit

IF AI does not close down/ privatise and morph into something else then of course the game is wide open again.