Jet Airways? plans to become the first carrier to enter the Star Alliance appears to be in jeopardy as the aviation ministry is trying its best to convince the global airlines network to consider national carrier Air India’s membership first.

According to senior civil aviation ministry officials, the government has taken up the matter with Star Alliance officials and has asked them to send the details of conditions that the carrier has not been able to meet.

?We do not have any problem with any private carrier applying for the membership. However, as the owner of Air India (AI), the government would certainly want the national carrier to be the first to enter the international alliance,? said a top official in the ministry. The ministry is also irked at the rejection of AI’s application by the international group of the 27 airlines.

The ministry official said, ?Though, there are problems with the carrier, it has a different structure, which was known to everyone even before the process started. Let us see, we would talk to them (Star Alliance) and would ask them to reconsider the application,? the official said.

The Star Alliance group?s members include Lufthansa and United Continental, Air Canada, Air China and US Airways. Last August, the alliance had put AI’s application on ‘suspension’, saying that the carrier did not meet the minimum joining conditions that were contractually agreed upoin in December 2007.

Industry sources said that the application was rejected by most of the members. The group is now in talks with the country’s private airline Jet Airways for its membership.

AI chairman and managing director Rohit Nandan has also sent a letter to the aviation ministry, seeking its intervention in the matter with Star Alliance. Jet Airways, has already written a letter to the ministry, seeking its approval to join the international grouping of airlines.

AI suffered losses of R1,700 cr in 3 years from 2009: Ajit

Air India suffered losses of over R1,700 crore on its international operations in the three years from 2009-10, the Lok Sabha was informed on Friday. The annual losses were R604 crore, R562 crore and R539 crore, respectively, in 2011-12, 2010-11 and 2009-10.

Details of the financial performance of the national carrier’s international operations were given out on Friday by civil aviation minister Ajit Singh in reply to a question in the Lok Sabha. Air India earned a revenue of R1,711.23 crore and incurred total cost of R2,626.15 crore between April and June.

While almost all foreign sectors were making losses for Air India, the highest loss-making routes were to the US and Canada and Europe, the figures showed.

The airline earned revenue of R10,78 crore, R1,707 crore and R596.9 crore on the US and Europe sectors in 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12, while its total cost stood at R2,057 crore, R2,861 crore and R983 crore, respectively, during the same years.PTI