The Hindu Business Line : Foreign airlines keen on more flights to India

Waiting to take-off
Lufthansa plans second daily flight from all Indian points to Munich.
Singapore Airlines wants to expand from twice daily to thrice.
SriLankan too looking to expand services.

Ashwini Phadnis

New Delhi, Sept 29 As more and more international airlines look to add flights to India, once a day it seems is just not enough. From German airline Lufthansa to Singapore Airlines and even SriLankan are all keen to expand their existing operations to India.

“Ideally, Lufthansa would like to operate a second daily flight from all our Indian points to Munich. This would be our long-term strategy so long as the bilaterals do not limit us,” said Mr Werner Hessen, General Manager and Director South Asia. Currently Lufthansa operates 45 flights a week to five cities including two flights a day from Delhi to Frankfurt and Munich.

Similarly, Singapore Airlines feels there is scope for increasing its Mumbai-Singapore flights to three a day from two at present. “We plan to operate 11 times a week to Delhi from next year. If traffic rights are available then we would like to operate a double daily. We are also keen to operate a double daily flight to Chennai if permitted by the bilaterals,” added SIA’s General Manager for India, Mr C.W. Foo. The airline also operates 11 flights a week to Chennai.

SriLankan too is looking at going twice daily into Bangalore and Delhi, as well as adding more points and increasing its services to Goa progressively up to daily, said Chief Executive Officer Mr Peter Hill.

Travel boom

So, what is driving this boom? According to travel industry officials, the reasons include increase in bilateral trade between India and the rest of the world, resulting in growing business and leisure travel to and from India.

In the case of Germany, officials point out that German companies are focusing on India with one new company opening an office in Pune almost every month. A host of large German companies — from automotive majors DaimlerChrysler and Volkswagen to IT major SAP — are in India and looking to expand, creating opportunities for airlines to offer more seats.

Besides, Indians are also becoming more adventurous in their travels. The Senior Country Director, Continental Airlines, Mr Laurent Recoura, points out that the launch of a Mumbai-New York flight is seeing heavy demand from passengers wanting to discover Mexico.

Increasing disposal incomes too are contributing to this trend.

“People are willing to travel short distances abroad for quick breaks, making it important for an airline to offer multiple choices of flights,” Mr Foo added.

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