Following instructions from the civil aviation ministry, the Indian embassy in Germany has now written to Lufthansa, pointing out that the carrier’s move to back Jet Airways would put Air India at a disadvantage.
Air India is now expected to join the Star Alliance in the first quarter of 2010, one year later than its scheduled plan for entry in March 2009. The delay is understood to be a result of the ongoing process of integrating the former Indian Airlines into Air India which began nearly 18 months ago and was expected to conclude by the end of 2008 and join Star at about the same time. The two airlines have yet to integrate their different IT platforms under one common system.