Indian aviation market offers long-term opportunities: Star Alliance CEO

New Delhi: India offers long-term opportunities and Air India is on a journey to capitalise on the growth in the country's aviation market which is also witnessing increased demand for premium leisure travel, according to Star Alliance CEO.

Star Alliance is a grouping of 26 airlines, including Air India.

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In an interview to PTI, the alliance's CEO Theo Panagiotoulias said the premium leisure travel segment continues to grow strongly, which is a global phenomenon that really started after the coronavirus pandemic.

"Historically, premium was more about the business traveller, and it was dominated by the business traveller. You're seeing a lot more leisure travellers willing to pay for a premium product," he said.

A lot of Star Alliance members have been reconfiguring their aircraft to be more premium heavy, to have more premium seats to cater to the demand.

Broadly, premium travel refers to people opting for premium economy, business and first class seats in a flight.

"In a market like India, where you've got the middle class growing continuously, they're directly correlated... I think we see that trend (demand for premium leisure travel) there as well," Panagiotoulias said.

About the Indian market, he said it was growing and evolving strongly.

"I think Air India is on a journey to capitalise on that growth. And we're really excited by it. I mean, the Indian market is such a critical market in terms of long-term growth and opportunities," he said.

Panagiotoulias also mentioned that the timing has been perfect for Air India.

Loss-making Air India, taken over by the Tata Group in January 2022, is undergoing an ambitious transformation plan.

"Like any business, as you're overhauling and making changes, it's not going to be smooth all the way through, but they are progressing really well and they've got our full support," he said.

The Star Alliance CEO spoke on the sidelines of the annual general meeting of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) here.

Star Alliance provides travellers with seamless access to over 1,150 airports across 190 countries, as per its website.

A management company, based in Frankfurt and Singapore, coordinates Star Alliance projects and activities. It includes airport co-location, digital infrastructure, frequent flyer integration and joint business lounge projects to improve the travel experience.

Among various initiatives, Panagiotoulias said the alliance was working on a long term project to leverage technology for rebooking passengers in member airlines when there are unexpected or irregular operations.

The efforts are to mitigate the impact of disruptions on passengers as much as possible.

All members at the Star Alliance are required to fulfill 51 standards, which also means that there has to be synergies among each other.

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At the same time, Panagiotoulias said there was also a clear acknowledgement that there are many different business models with different priorities that are serving different constituencies and local markets.

"Both of those can live together in a very complimentary manner… what cohabits within an alliance are joint ventures, strong partnership in certain geographies. And we encourage that," he noted.

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