Lufthansa says A380 flight to India stuck for govt approval

India has appeared prominently on the Lufthansa German Airlines’ double-deck A380 plan but government hurdle could well push it off it.

The airline, which has been trying to get approval for introducing A380 flights from India over the last two years, says it has been frustrated in its effort with the Indian government being “unresponsive” to its request. 

Carsten Sphor, chief executive officer of Lufthansa, said if the airline gets a nod from Indian authorities today, it would go so far as to remove an existing flight to start one from India.

“Many markets would love to serve it with (A)380 but the infrastructure is not ready. You are now ready in Delhi. If we get an approval to fly to India, we are ready to pull out flight from other destination to accommodate it,” he said.

Lufthansa currently owns seven of the Superjumbos, which it operates on five routes including Johannesburg, New York, Beijing, Tokyo and San Francisco. The airline has ordered a total of 15 A380s and is expected to receive eight of them over the next few years.

India is apprehensive about giving Lufthansa and other foreign carriers permission to operate A380 flights to India because it could adversely impact local airlines’ international operations. 

The new generation aircraft is important in the Lufthansa’s scheme of things to be more profitable and compete more effectively with rivals that are eating into its market share. 

Sphor believes the new terminal - T3 - at New Delhi will boost traffic from India and Lufthansa is in a position to take advantage of that by creating a local hub for the market.

“India, itself, is big enough a market to serve that hub. Like when we go for hubs in China and US, we don’t necessarily use them for abroad travel, we use them for that market. But sure, place like Sri Lanka or Maldives—where we don’t go and where Delhi is nicely located - we will see additional traffic coming through those hubs,” said the Lufthansa executive.

Spohr also believes that once Air India and Jet Airways join the Star Alliance, Delhi would automatically become its hub in the region but may not attain the size of Chicago and Frankfurt in the short term. Air India was invited to become the member of the airline club in 2007 but has not been able to fulfill the requirements to be part of it.

State-owned Air India has now been given a deadline until July 31 to meet all criteria to join the airline grouping, failing which Star Alliance would withdraw the invitation.