The Hindu Business Line : Lufthansa eyes over 15 pc market share on India-Europe sector

LUFTHANSA, the German airline, which is bullish on the opportunities in the Indian market, hopes to increase its market share on the India-Europe sector from nine per cent during 2002 to more than 15 per cent during 2005, the airlines Executive Vice-President, Market and Sales and Member of the Executive Board, Mr Thierry Antinori, said here on Friday.

"This is not a wish but a guarantee to the market. We are committed to grow by 35 per cent in the next two to three years. No other country has had such a performance as has been seen in India," Mr Antinori told newspersons at a press conference.

India's share in Lufthansa's Asia-Pacific revenues grew in 2003 to 17 per cent from 13 per cent recorded earlier.

Officials said that the airline was confident of achieving its targets due to a variety of reasons such as the growth in demand, the upswing in the Indian economy, the massive jump in tourist traffic and the strategic cooperation that Lufthansa has with Air India (AI).

Interestingly, the German airline is holding its global sales conference in India for the first time in recognition of a market growing in global importance for the airline.

Meanwhile, Lufthansa officials indicated that the airline could look at the possibility of offering a two-class configuration of business and economy on some of the flights that it operates to certain destinations in India.

Officials, while indicating that there was a huge demand for first class seats from both Delhi and Mumbai, noted that the possible implementation of a decision to offer only a two-class configuration on some flights to certain destinations in India would not lead to any reduction in the number of seats being offered on the India-Germany route.

However, despite Lufthansa having a host of subsidiaries, Mr Antinori said that the airline had no plans to enter into any "new activity" and added that there were "no plans in that direction at this time".

At present, the airline operates 29 weekly flights between India and Germany, including offering 10 weekly flights from Delhi apart from operating a daily flight on the Mumbai-Frankfurt and Chennai-Frankfurt sectors.

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