Civil Aviation Ministry may put pressure on German carrier Lufthansa AG into mentoring Air India for its entry into the prestigious global airline grouping called Star Alliance.

Civil Aviation minister Ajit Singh said today that “a lot of facilities have been given to Lufthansa to get AI into Star Alliance, we almost made India an open-sky (operation) for them. Now, we will ask them to facilitate AI’s entry Lufthansa was one of the founding airlines of the Alliance. Ministry officials confirmed that a meeting has been sought with Lufthansa officials on the issue while alleging that “benefits and rights” were given to the German carrier and this gesture needs to be reciprocated by Lufthansa.

They also hinted at reassessing the permissions granted to Lufthansa network airlines Swiss and Austrian Airlines, which had been earlier acquired by Lufthansa but continue to function under bilateral agreements signed between India and the two respective countries.

Ministry officials say that bilateral conditions specify that only the official airline of a country with which such an agreement has been signed should be flying into India. Since Swiss is not the national airline of Switzerland, permissions could be withdrawn.

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