Lufthansa carriers up India flights

The airlines of Deutsche Lufthansa AG — SWISS International and Austrian Airlines — have decided to launch additional flights from India. The expansion follows completion of a comprehensive cost restructuring exercise by Lufthansa last year, when it also axed two flights from India to manage costs.

In the new dispensation, SWISS International Airlines will increase flights between Mumbai and Zurich from five to six per week from June 2010. The Delhi-Zurich frequency is also being increased from five to six per week in the current winter schedule.

Then, Lufthansa has recently integrated Austrian Airlines and the latter will increase frequencies on the Vienna - Delhi route from five to six in the next summer schedule. Also, in the upcoming summer schedule, Lufthansa’s all-Business Class service on Frankfurt-Pune route will be modified by converting the Boeing 737-800 aeroplanes into a two-class configuration.

“By adding economy seats, Lufthansa caters to demand from an increasing number of leisure travellers eager to depart directly from Pune to Europe or to transatlantic destinations,” said Axel Hilgers, Lufthansa’s director for South Asia. This reconfiguration would increase seats on the Frankfurt-Pune route from 56 business class-only to total 92 seats (32 in business and 60 in economy class). This capacity expansion would mean reduction in frequencies between Frankfurt and Pune from six to three per week.

Lufthansa is the largest European airline from India, operating 52 flights per week from seven destinations. Like other domestic and foreign carriers, Lufthansa has also seen yield per passenger falling in the last several months because of the global meltdown and consequent fall in passenger traffic, but yields are improving again. Hilgers says this yield improvement is happening slowly and not at previous levels. “We need to work further on cost levels… yields fell 20% during the global slowdown and even though passenger traffic is back now, yields are still not back with us. We won’t reach 2006-07 levels even in the next 12 months.”

As per bilateral agreements between India and Germany, airlines from both countries are allowed to together operate 69 flights to and fro per week. Lufthansa alone does 52, but together with SWISS and Austrian it does 67 per week to Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich and Vienna.