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Lufthansa has no plans to bid for Air-India

Fakir Chand in Bangalore

German aviation giant Lufthansa on Monday categorically said that it had no plans to join the race for acquiring Air-India in partnership with the Tatas, following the walking away of Singapore Airlines from the alliance.

Talking to newspersons, Lufthansa vice-president for Asia and Pacific Manfred Reimer said that the company did not enter the bidding process earlier as Singapore Airlines, its STAR alliance partner, was involved.

"Though Singapore Airlines had now backed out of the deal, we are not interested at the moment in buying out Air-India," he added.

Lufthansa, however, is setting its eyes on India in a big way to expand its fleet of operations, including cargo services for retaining its leading position among international airlines.

The German airlines would be entering into a yet another bilateral agreement with the Indian government in October for increasing its flights to and from India from the four destinations it has began operating, with Bangalore being the latest.

"We will be holding the next round of discussions with the Union ministry of civil aviation as well as with Air-India in Delhi next month for a long-term bilateral agreement to operate more services to and from India. Though Air-India has stopped its operations to Germany, we hope it would resume its flights to or via Frankfurt so that we can have a code-sharing arrangement with it as we have with Air China and others," Reimer disclosed.

He, however, refused to divulge the details, pending discussions with the Indian officials.

As an outcome of the earlier bilateral talks held in February last between the Indian and the German governments, Lufthansa has obtained rights to fly into Bangalore from September, and increase its frequencies from Bombay and Madras with two more flights each from next year.

Being the first European airlines to commence non-stop flights from Bangalore to Frankfurt thrice in a week, Lufthansa will be negotiating with the Indian government for rights to fly on two more days from Bangalore as and when the traffic picks up momentum.

As of now, the wholly privatised airlines operates a total of 18 flights to India with a daily service to Delhi, five in a week from Bombay, and three each from Madras and Bangalore.

"In the entire Asia-Pacific region, India is the only country where Lufthansa flies into as many as four major destinations, and operates more services per month than Air France, KLM, and Swiss Air among the European airlines operating from the sub-continent," Reimer claimed.

As a founding member of the Star Alliance, the world's leading global alliance comprising 15-member airlines, including a few from Asia, Lufthansa is planning to provide connections to eastern destinations from Madras and Bangalore in the near future.

"Everything depends on the passenger traffic and the Indian government in giving landing rights to more international airlines from these two southern cities. We are ready to providing connecting flights from Madras and Bangalore by roping our alliance airlines in South East Asia such as Thai Airways and Singapore Airlines. We would like to compliment our excellent connecting facility being offered now from Frankfurt to any European or American cities," Reimer stated.

With Germany emerging as the largest trading partner with India in the European Union, Bangalore is turning out to be a favorite destination of Germans and other Europeans, thanks to its global recognition as the fourth technology hub in the world.

"We expect a mix of traffic from business travelers and tourists as Bangalore is the gateway for many exciting tourist spots in south India. In fact, around 55 per cent of the traffic that Lufthansa flights have been carrying from Bombay and Delhi were originating from Bangalore during the technology boom time," Reimer asserted.

The German airlines has not only introduced Indian cabin crew on all its flights to India, but also provides Indian cuisine, including vegetarian meals as an exclusive option on all its India routes. "We have set up a state-of-the-art flight kitchen facility in Bangalore to cater to our passengers originating from south India."

The airlines also operate its cargo services from 5 major destinations in India, including the four metros and Bangalore. Lufthansa Cargo AG, the airlines group company, handles over 900 tons of cargo every week from the sub-continent, which includes daily services to Colombo in Sri Lanka.

Additional inputs: UNI

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