The airline would make the city its sixth destination after Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad in the Lufthansa India network, Werner Heesen airline's general manager, passenger sales India and director South Asia said. This would establish its presence across all metros with 45 weekly flights. The airline would operate an Airbus A340-300 on this sector.
The 235-seater Airbus would have a configuration of 8 first class, 54 business class and 173 economy class seats. It would have special in-flight innovations like access to high-speed wireless Internet and a private bed, in the newly designed exclusive business class seat, Heesen said.
Heesen said that passengers could book tickets with immediate effect till November 15 for travel to Europe for Rs 19,900, and at Rs 35,000 in the economy class to Los Angeles and New York.
Lufthansa began scheduled services to India with Kolkata becoming the first destination in 1959 when a Lockheed Super Constellation (LH-640) landed here on November 1, 1959, after flying 30 hours from Frankfurt via Cairo, Kuwait and Karachi. The flight operated twice a week.
The airline, however, withdrew its flights in 1971 citing security reasons due to the naxalite agitation in the state.
