After the falling apart of JetAirways and its exit from the Indian aviation industry, the German airline Lufthansa is planning on increasing its partnership with other Indian airlines, namely Vistara and Air India. As per a PTI report, a top Indian official in Lufthansa said that it would strengthen its partnerships with Indian Airlines in 2020. As per George Ettiyil, Senior Director, South Asia, Lufthansa Group, the carrier will be starting a Bengaluru-Munich flight in 2020, but that would be the only flight that the carrier will start next year.
Lufthansa Interline Agreement With Vistara
It is also worth noting that Lufthansa is currently engaged in an interline agreement with Vistara. This means that the passengers of Lufthansa can check-in at the first airport itself for the entire flight consisting of flights from both the carriers. The top Lufthansa official also added that with JetAirways gone from the Indian aviation industry, Lufthansa is searching for partners in India. Apart from the interline agreement with Vistara, Lufthansa also has a codeshare agreement with Air India which allows the passengers to book Lufthansa tickets on Air India website and vice versa.
Lufthansa Frankfurt-Pune Operation Stopped
The two brands of the group - Swiss and Lufthansa, both operate services to India. While Swiss has connectivity from Zurich to Delhi and Mumbai, Lufthansa operates flights from Frankfurt to Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai and from Munich to Delhi and Mumbai. Starting April 1, 2020, the Munich to Bengaluru flight will take off five days a week. The airline has also added that currently it does not have any plans to grow in capacity. Till January this year, Lufthansa also used to have Frankfurt-Pune connectivity, however, due to the wet lease agreement with PrivatAir going bust, Lufthansa could not find a replacement for the airline, and hence has been unable to continue operations.
