Keeping in sync with the international trend, Chairman and Managing Director V Thulasidas of Air-India on Saturday said he favoured it should be merged with the domestic carrier Indian Airlines.

Speaking to reporters after the addressing the 53^rd annual convention of Travel Agents Association of India in Kolkata, Thulasidas said: "There is a need for a merger."

When asked whether this would actually take place, he said it was a matter of policy decision to be taken by the government.

The Air-India chief said in most cases, a strong international carrier was supported by an equally capable domestic carrier.

He said the option was either to merge Indian Airlines with Air-India or to transform the domestic carrier as a subsidiary of A-I.

The Air-India chief said before pursuing the open skies policy further, the government should strengthen the role of the national carrier to protect the economic interests of the country.

Saying that A-I was not against opening up or liberalisation per se, Thulasidas said time was ripe to ponder on why the country's carrier had not been able to play the role of a strong airlines in the international arena.

Speaking of bilateral ties with various countries, the Air-India chief said of the 100 such pacts, more than 50 per cent were non-functional.

Recently, Air-India and British Airways, under the bilateral agreement, agreed to increase the number of weekly frequencies from 19 to 40, Thulasidas said.

He said AI also had entered into a win-win deal with Lufthansa.

Asked whether the non-functional bilateral pacts were needed to be scrapped, he said these were required to be kept in force for future. Out of the 50-odd non-functional bilateral relations, 18 were with the CIS countries.

Citing the prime reason for why A-I had not being able to emerge as a strong carrier, he said that the lack of decision to augment fleet and the controversial issue of privatisation had come in the way of the carrier from making its mark in the global arena.

He also said there was also an immediate need for developing strong hubs in India, failing which foreign airlines of other countries would take the fullest advantage.

Thulasidas said India's advantage lay in a large home market with a presence of a number of international airports.