'See medium term shift in traffic flows to, from India; have upped capacity here due to demand:’ Lufthansa

MUMBAI: The Israel-Iran war will “in the medium term” alter traffic international flows to and from India and also some other parts of the world. When the Gulf carriers, which have a lion’s share of this traffic, are able to resume their pre-crisis schedules remains to be seen. Lufthansa senior VP (sales, distribution and marketing) Frank Naeve says the option of bringing more group airlines to India is being evaluated. At present, only Lufthansa, SWISS and ITA (erstwhile Alitalia) operate here. Speaking exclusively to TOI’s Saurabh Sinha, Naeve spoke about the group’s India strategy and travel trends seen here in the past year shaped by geopolitical realities.

Ques. How are airlines tackling the challenges posed by the ongoing was in West Asia?
Ans. Airlines are by nature agile in tackling various challenges that keep are coming with unfailing regularity in past few years. Safety remains the priority and with that basic principle, the operations are carried out.

Right now our focus is on bringing people home to safety from West Asia and also ensure continued connectivity in the current times. India is especially important to us as it is the second biggest international market for us after the US. We are close to utilising the maximum traffic rights in India. Still (this month we are investing with significant capacity increases by deploying bigger aircraft here given the demand.

We have deployed (500-seater) Airbus A380 instead of the (280-seater) A350 between Munich and Delhi, and Mumbai and Munich. There are additional frequencies between Chennai and Frankfurt.

Ques. Your partner Air India has also added extra extra flights in view of the demand. How do you plan to grow in the India market going ahead?

Ans. As of now only three group airlines — Lufthansa, SWISS and ITA — fly to India. There are others carriers in the group that do not fly here as of now including Austrian, brussels airlines, discover and Eurowings. While these are early days, we are evaluating bringing more of our group airlines here.

Our partnership with Air India is progressing well. AI-Lufthansa recently signed a joint business agreement to increase cooperation and further develop our network. For customers, this will mean increased seamless connectivity to an ever growing network with partner airlines aligning their schedules to offer convenient connections.

We have a growing staff base in India. Both Lufthansa Technik Service India and Lufthansa Systems have their global capability centres in Bengaluru that together have over 1,000 employees. We bring our latest planes and cabin products to India now including our Allegris business class.

Ques. Lufthansa Group enjoys a significant share in the travel market between India and North America. In the last one year, have you seen that demand shrink?
Ans. We have seen both way travels demand slacked on India-Canada market in the last few years. However recently (with improvement in ties between the two countries and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney visit to India) that demand has stopped falling and is steadying now.

As far as the US is concerned (given visa issues, including for students, with India) the demand for travel to the US from India has been subdued. But that is more than compensated by the spurt in travel out of the US.

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