Air India (AI, Delhi International) is considering having its Air India Express (IX, Delhi International) and Alliance Air (India) (9I, Delhi International) subsidiaries join Star Alliance's Connecting Partner Model (CPM) programme India's LiveMint news has reported.
According to airline sources who spoke to the paper on condition of anonymity, the process will start with Air India Express's accession first followed by Alliance Air's. For its part, Air India only joined Star Alliance in July 2014 following a lengthy, protracted vetting process.
The CPM caters primarily to LCCs and hybrid airlines whose route networks compliment those of Star Alliance. While successful candidates will not become fully-fledged members of the alliance, they will be able to enter into bilateral commercial agreements with select member airlines, which may include additional Frequent Flyer Programme-based privileges. South Africa's Mango Airlines (MNO, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) is the only known airline to have joined the CPM thus far.
Of Air India's two subsidiaries, Air India Express operates budget flights using a fleet of eighteen B737-800s on flights from India to Malaysia, Singapore, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman. For its part, Alliance Air was the budget subsidiary of Indian Airlines (Delhi International) prior to its merger with Air India in 2011. Rebranded as Air India Regional, Alliance Air specializes in serving twenty-three Tier II and III airports across India from bases in Delhi International, Bengaluru International, Kolkata , Hyderabad International, and Mumbai International. It employs a fleet of two ATR42-300s, six ATR72-600s, and three CRJ700s.
