Originally Posted by
SeeTheWorld1984
Must agree with this. Skyteam will have to offer 9W a lot to convince them to join. Looks more likely they've lost 9W to Star. However I doubt the Indian government will allow them to join until Air India joins an alliance!
While I agree that SkyTeam will probably have to work harder than Star to woo 9W (because Star is more desirable for 9W in terms of synergies). But I definitely would not write SkyTeam off.
Government of India is more interested in AI being the sole Indian carrier in the alliance they join than AI being the first Indian carrier in an alliance. That's why the Star Alliance issue is being held up - GoI is refusing to let 9W join the same alliance as AI, and Star is therefore refusing to let AI join. 9W joining SkyTeam would fix this problem up nicely.