The civil aviation ministry is pitching hard to get Air-India into the global airline association, Star Alliance. A delegation led by civil aviation secretary K Roy Paul was in Frankfurt, the headquarters of the Star Alliance, for discussions with its top brass.

Ministry sources said the Alliance had earlier been positive about making the national flag carrier its member. Star Alliance chief executive officer Jaan Albrecht had said earlier this month in Washington that the Alliance would consider A-I for membership. Currently, Star Alliance is the largest airline association in the world.

A-I officials refused to comment on the on-going talks, but said a membership in one of the alliances would be beneficial for the airline. "It would be a definite marketing advantage since we would be able to extend our reach through code-shares. We would also be able to offer our customers services offered on the alliances' network," said a senior official.

In Frankfurt, the ministry delegation has also held bilateral talks with German carrier Lufthansa, one of the founding members of Star Alliance. Lufthansa is keen to extend its operations in south India. It is keen on flights to Hyderabad and to add more flights to Bangalore and Chennai.

The ministry had last year held talks with SkyTeam, OneWorld and Star Alliance but it did not result in A-I getting membership in any of the alliances. Sources said A-I was likely to procure membership now.

Star Alliance is an association of 16 airlines with access to 700 airports in 128 countries. Other than the founding members, Air Canada, United Airlines and Lufthansa, the Alliance consists of Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Austrian Airlines, SAS, Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways, Varig, BMI British Midland, Lauda Air, Mexicana, Spanair and Tyrolean Airways.

While SkyTeam has six members, Oneworld Alliance has eight. The fourth airline alliance Qualiflyer has 11 members.