Originally Posted by
abaheti
My impression was that the government of India kind of forced *A to deal with AI and wouldn't entertain other options. The other alliances benefit from now having open season on Jet and any of the other up and comers. IIRC, Jet even applied to join *A a couple of years ago and the government basically said NO to alliances until AI gets an alliance.
http://www.livemint.com/Companies/Vl...-Alliance.html
How could the government of India force *A into anything? Sure, they were probably telling AI to go find an alliance, but what could they have possibly held over Star Alliance's head to force this to happen? Landing slots at Indian airports for other *A airlines? (serious question, BTW)