German flag carrier Lufthansa on Friday said it will act as a mentor to Indian state carrier Air India to become a member of Star Alliance, a global grouping of top airlines.
NEW DELHI: German flag carrier Lufthansa on Friday said it will act as a mentor to Indian state carrier Air India to become a member of Star Alliance, a global grouping of top airlines.
"Lufthansa is the mentor for Air India and we will work together to get the latter on board the Star Alliance," the German airlines' South Asia director Werner Heesen said here.
However, Heesen said his company had no plans at present for financial investments in India.
"Financial investments are not on the strategic map of Lufthansa for India," he said when asked about the airlines' plans for South Asia in the wake of the current aviation industry crisis.
He said Lufthansa currently operated 55 flights from seven Indian cities to three destinations in Germany--Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich.
All Lufthansa flights have nearly 60 per cent bookings from travellers of Indian origin, he said. "Indians form about two-thirds of the total passengers on our flights from Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Pune," Heesen said.
So, Lufthansa was consciously planning its routes to suit Indian travellers. "Also, we are ensuring that Indians get to feel at home by including all types of Indian cuisine, Indian attendants speaking the languages of different regions and in-flight entertainment with local content," he added.
German National Tourist Board chief executive officer Petra Hedorfer said her organisation had worked out at least 10 reasons that would attract Indian business, leisure and other travellers to Germany.
"I am sure there could be more reasons involving people, life and leisure. But the main attractions to Germany for Indian travellers is the three million events that include cultural, festival and business events," Hedorfer said.
Among the attractions she listed were world-class infrastructure of roads, rail and air travel, theme parks, 32 UNESCO-listed world heritage sites, castles and fairy tales, industrial events and expos, shopping, and wellness tourism.
German Ambassador to India Barnrd Muetselburg, who was also present on the occasion, said his embassy had outsourced the visa application processing to a private firm in Delhi and it took them at least four weeks to process applicants travelling to his country for the first time.
"For frequent travellers, the visa processing will be done quickly. Bona fide travellers will get their visa without any complications," Muetselburg added.
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