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Friday, Oct 20, 2006
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Lufthansa to expand services

T. Ramakrishnan

`It is interested in running a second service from Munich'

— Photo: T. Ramakrishnan

SPREADING ITS WINGS: Men at work at Lufthansa's hangar at Frankfurt Airport in Germany.

FRANKFURT: Lufthansa Passenger Airline, whose operations in India have increased in recent years, is keen on expanding its services to more areas including Goa and Kochi.

Until this year's summer, the number of weekly frequencies of the airline was 42. This will go up by two in the winter with the introduction of services from Frankfurt to Kolkata. The overall number will be 45 next year.

According to a timetable drawn up by the airline for the winter, the number of weekly frequencies will be seven each in respect of New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore; six in the case of Hyderabad and three for Kolkata, all with Frankfurt as the German destination.

The remaining seven will be operated between New Delhi and Munich in southern Germany. Kolkata will be the airline's first destination in the eastern part of India.

Noting that the expansion of the operations was governed by the framework of traffic rights between the two nations, Holger Haetty, Member of the Board of the company, told a group of Indian journalists flown in by Lufthansa recently that it was for the two Governments to decide on enlarging the scope of the framework.

The last bilateral talks on traffic rights was held last year. Though it was agreed that the next round would take place in 2006, this had not happened.

Dr. Haetty expressed the hope that the two sides would meet soon.

Indicating that his organisation was interested in running a second service from Munich, he said that though the airline wanted to offer its customers a wide range of destinations within India, the present scheme of code-share rights came in the way.

Dr. Haetty said his organisation was in favour of the merger of Indian and Air India and would welcome the combined entity to join the Star Alliance, a platform for 18 airlines from different continents.

Noting that Lufthansa was having a code-share cooperation with Air India since 2004 and a tie-up with Jet Airways from May this year for traffic within India, he said it wanted to intensify its collaboration in various fields. Currently, there were no code-share rights with Jet Airways.

The official emphasised the need for improving infrastructure of Indian airports expeditiously to tackle the growing requirements.

On the reports of baggage mishandling at the Frankfurt airport, Karl-Rudolf Rupprecht, Senior Vice president, Hub Management- Frankfurt of the airline, acknowledged that there were serious problems but efforts were being taken to address them.

Christina Forester, General Manager, Product Management Intercontinental of the airline, explained how the company offered a range of local specialities such as masala tea and Indian movies including those in Tamil, keeping the tastes of Indian customers in mind.

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