Originally Posted by jasepl

Really? Now a mainstream article is perfectly trustworthy?

And in any event, no. Simply going by what AI said or, worse, what a bureaucrat said is being incredibly naïve.

Star Alliance gave Air India the finger because they were fed up of waiting.

And before anyone bursts into a combination of protests, conspiracy theories, finger-pointing and naively believing all that a government official spouts out, Star's decision was perfectly justified.

Star invited Air India to join, yes, but subject to certain criteria, certainly. Which, I presume, included Air India getting their act together by a certain date or within a "reasonable" time. Neither of which AI did. Four years is unacceptable from any angle, regardless of the reason or excuse.

We don't know for sure what exactly each of those reasons these airlines had for not wanting AI anymore. I doubt it's because Air India were crap (or Jet were less crap), because that's not a new finding, and Star have their fair share of crap airlines. I suspect it's because they concluded that enough is enough.

When AI moved at such a glacial pace for alliance entry - and everything else, really - one can't blame Star members if they're worried about a future with AI. Air India's hopelessness has a rather minimal impact on the alliance now; if they were to become a member, and continued behaving the same way (a perfectly fair expectation), the impact could be significant.

Shut the damn thing down immediately and put the exchequer out of its misery.