Air Transport

A potential alliance between India's Kingfisher Airways and Jet Airways has run into trouble with the country's anti-competition authorities.

In October 2008, the carriers announced a wide-ranging alliance covering codesharing on domestic and international flights as well as interlining. They also agreed to jointly manage fuel purchases, join forces in ground handling, integrate and rationalise their networks, link frequent-flyer programmes and share flight crews.

"The honest truth is that the alliance has run into troubled waters with the authorities since then," Jet Airways chief commercial officer Sudheer Raghavan said at Asian Aerospace. "There is a huge zeal in India about non-competitive behaviour, and our plan is still stuck with the authorities."

He adds that the anti-competition commission has asked both airlines "a lot of questions about the proposed alliance," but the carriers have not heard from the authorities for several months.

"We cannot proceed until this has come through," he adds.