New Delhi, Aug. 22: SkyTeam — the world’s No. 2 international airline alliance — has approached Air India with a membership offer following Star Alliance’s decision to keep out the national carrier from the global grouping.

According to officials in the ministry of civil aviation, the SkyTeam delegation, led by managing director Michael Wisbrun, met civil aviation secretary Nasim Zaidi last week and expressed interest in making the national carrier part of its alliance.

In the aftermath of the Star Alliance fiasco, Air India has been approached by both SkyTeam as well as Oneworld with membership proposals and the offer to help the national carrier improve its international operations.

“SkyTeam is one of the alliances that have approached us. Thanks to our preparations to join Star Alliance, we revamped our working on a par with the standards of any international body. We do not have any problems in joining SkyTeam and will consider its proposal seriously. But at the same time we are open to talks with Star Alliance if they want to restart a dialogue,” a senior ministry official said.

SkyTeam — founded in 2000 by Aeroméxico, Air France, Delta Air Lines and Korean Air — is the last of the three airline alliances to be formed.

It has grown to become the second largest global alliance in terms of passengers and members, behind Star Alliance and ahead of Oneworld.

The alliance consists of 14 carriers, including Al Italia, KLM and Delta Air Lines, from four continents and flies to 916 airports in 169 countries. It operates over 14,000 daily flights with a combined fleet of 3,400 aircraft, including associate carriers.

It has 465 lounges worldwide to serve its 474 million annual passengers. SkyTeam also runs a separate cargo alliance — SkyTeam Cargo — which partners nine carriers who are all SkyTeam members.

Very good news Skyteam is the right fit for Air India. Service efficiency etc all comparable to Alitalia etc
Now the way is clear for Jet Airways to join Star Alliance Kingfisher in OW next year, and Indian flying will be great!

Someone obviously has a lot of hate for SkyTeam. :|

Think Air India is just teasing Star Alliance. I'm thinking they will restart talks soon, Star desperately wants an Indian carrier, as does Skyteam, but I'm sure Air India will join Star over Sky.

I just wish one of them would hurry up and join Skyteam!!

Skyteam has the huge advantage of not competing with AI on the Uk route (BD wants to and BA does) as well as on directs to USA which only AI offers among Indian carriers now So actually I think Skyteam may be a better fit for AI. Tje crappy transit visa rule in France means AF is not competition and even if AZ were to come back no Indian in their right mind would use them IMO. East of India Skyteam has no capacity carrier in ASEAN which suits AI And strongSkyteam presence in east Africa and China complements AI which then is under less pressure to operate there and can focus on core routes AI would also be at the top, not the bottom, of the product and service quality rankings in Skyteam. So it's a great match IMO

Is this a France-specific rule or a Schengen area rule ?

I thought AI didn't belonged to Star over Skyteam? How come? Unfortunately, AI application is rejected and does not have to joining into Star. They could not understand why they didn't summit the application.

Schengen rules are all the same. So this does not make any difference between CDG or FRA.

You need a transit visa if you go from non-Schengen to non-Schengen via a single Schengen stop. You need to clear Schengen immigration and a Schengen tourist or business visa if you travel to a second Schengen country in the middle, as the two Schengen flights are domestic.

France specific..I think

I don't think Swiss or LH require a transit visa for pax connecting to the USA at least. We just had a bunch of Indians come to NYC on these airlines and I don't think. They had to get Schengen visas... They may already have had them of course... Il check...

I correct myself. You don't need a transit visa anymore (my bad, didn't check), and you don't need it neither in FRA nor in CDG, provided you are not connecting in two Schengen countries (because in that case you are effectively entering the Schengen area, as I said above. That didn't change)

I can't tell if you're joking or not.

Why? All I am saying is that air ndia is as good as Alitalia???

Which amazes me why Skyteam would want another questionable airline in the alliance? It would just contribute to the perception of being the Alliance of scraps.

Which, based on other threads that I've seen, is what he believes SkyTeam is.