How Lufthansa Group Is Expanding Its Wings In India European airline major Lufthansa is bullish about the India market and is expanding its operations. With its new services it plans to operate more than 60 weekly flights from India and it has plans to bring back Airbus A380 into the Asian market

European airline major Lufthansa is set to expand its operations in India by the winter schedule with the launch of flights from Munich to Bangalore and from Frankfurt to Hyderabad this year. Currently, it has daily flights from Delhi and Mumbai to Frankfurt, Munich and Zurich; daily flights from Bengaluru to Frankfurt and five times a week flight from Madras to Frankfurt. With the existing operations in place, the airline has 54 weekly flights which will go up to 56 flights by June 28th and more than 60 weekly flights with new operations in place.

"The Indian market is very important for the Lufthansa Group. The brand intends to make the best of India's untapped growth opportunity especially in the post-COVID era. Post pandemic It took us some time to get back into the India market and now it is great to see the phenomenal growth here," said Harry Hohmeister, member of the executive board global markets & network, Lufthansa Group.

When asked about the expansion of bilateral rights between countries, Hohmeister said, "Of course, it has an effect. In the long run, I think the airlines would be better off if they do partnerships and understand that not one airline can generate a global network. It is simply impossible. An airline can be strong in one region as the Lufthansa Group is the strongest in Europe. Likewise, Air India will be the strongest in India and when the strongest work together, it will be great," he said.

Considering Air India's privatization and the growth plans of other Indian carriers, the Indian government is maintaining a tight grip on bilateral rights, especially for carriers in the Middle East, to allow steady developments of Indian airlines.

When it comes to expansion plans, maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) facilities are of great importance. So, does Lufthansa Group have plans around it, "Well, we want to work out our MRO business here but as of now there is no concrete development. However, we would definitely look forward to participating in the area either by contracts or partnerships with other entities."

Currently, the airline is operational in four Indian cities: Delhi, Bengaluru, Madras, Mumbai and will soon be operational in Hyderabad. Do you have plans to enter other Indian cities, maybe the eastern region ? "Immediately, we don't have plans to enter other additional cities as we are already occupied with new developments. However, maybe in the next two years we can look into it. More than the eastern regions we are keen on expanding into the western regions of India. Later, we can explore other options as well."

As air travel rebounds strongly, in response to the steep rise in customer demand, the Airbus A380 has made a better-than-expected post-pandemic recovery, with Lufthansa being one of many carriers bringing the superjumbo back into operations. "The airline expects to use the long-haul aircraft, which is popular with customers and crews, again from summer 2023," the company had earlier said.

Additionally, it has plans to bring back the super jumbo into the Asian Pacific markets. So, what's the secret sauce behind this? "In 2022, we carried more than 100 million passengers and the operating profit rose to 1.5 billion euros which gives us confidence about our success," Hohmeister added.

Talking about innovations, he added, "We will make historically high investments into aircrafts. We have more than 200 aircrafts on order that will modernize our fleet and these will be operational in Europe in the near future, these will also be open to the public for flying."

Talking about the importance of India, he emphasized that the aviation market will grow here by roughly 10 per cent every year and the GDP will grow by 6 to 7 per cent every year, which makes this a very lucrative opportunity for the Lufthansa Group.

In 2019, Lufthansa celebrated 25 years of operations in Chennai. The airline commenced its regional operations in 1994 with bi-weekly flights from Chennai.