Air India is to join Star Alliance in July, three years after its original bid was rejected.
The move was confirmed by Star Alliance CEO Mark Schwab who said members will meet in London next month to formally approve India’s first airline into the alliance.
"The precise date of joining is yet to be decided but it will be in July," said Schwab.
In 2007 a bid from Air India to join the alliance was rejected due to IT transfer problems and difficulties in the merger with domestic carrier Indian Airlines.
"There are a few commercial agreements that need to be signed with other member airlines relating to code sharing, but Air India is already in the advanced stages of those discussions," said Schwab
"They have been through a tough merger but they have a strong management team and they have improved their infrastructure and fleet. This is a different Air India.”
Air India chairman and managing director Rohit Nandan said: "Air India has completed 45 of the 64 requirements already and the remaining will be completed in May.”
Nandan added that Air India has now asked global airline body IATA to undertake customer satisfaction surveys to monitor the progress of its service improvements.
"We are being tested against the best 16 airlines in the world and we have started to show improvements.”
AirIndia.com