Indirectly rejecting the offer to join Jet Airways-Kingfisher alliance, Air India on Wednesday said the two private airlines had to come together as their backs have now been forced to the wall by the state-owned carrier.

Air India officials, unwilling to be named, said had Jet and Kingfisher been interested in tiding the aviation industry crisis, they could have floated the idea and formed an alliance much earlier.

"...or this alliance could have been formed through the Federation of Indian Airlines," they added.

FIA is an umbrella body of Indian carriers and currently headed by Air India chairman and managing director Raghu Menon.