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Our Bureau

Mumbai, May 5 Tapping on the growing business travel market in India, German carrier Lufthansa will commence all business-class non-stop flights between Pune and Frankfurt from July 1.

The airline plans to deploy an Airbus 319 long range aircraft on this route with a capacity to carry 48 passengers. It will be operating six times a week.

The Lufthansa South Asia Director, Mr Werner Heesen, told Business Line, “Pune is an emerging business destination. We see developments in Pune like in Bangalore six-seven years ago. Problem is that airport facilities and the runway are limited, load wise. So, the only option to operate currently is a direct service to Europe through A 319. This is again a step-by-step development. Once the runway is extended and can take wide body aircraft, we would like to be the first ones to operate there.”

He said Lufthansa is also viewing this as an opportunity to carry the excess capacity in the business travel market from Mumbai, now to Pune. Calling it a pilot project, the carrier does not have any plans to start similar flights from elsewhere in India as yet, he added.

The airline currently operates 55 flights a week between India and Germany and plans to gradually increase that to 69 flights by February next year, Mr Heesen said.

The German carrier also launched a service connecting Mumbai with Munich on Sunday. With plans to boost current services from Mumbai and Kolkata to Germany, the carrier will be turning its thrice weekly Mumbai-Munich service to a daily service by October, he said.

The Kolkata-Frankfurt service will also be upgraded from thrice weekly to five times a week from June 3, he said.

On a specific query on how is Lufthansa viewing Air India’s interest on having a European hub, Mr Steffen Harbarth, Vice-President of hub development and capacity management, Hub Munich, told reporters that the German carrier would support the State-owned carrier’s move.

Munich airport has a dedicated terminal for all members of the Star Alliance, the world’s largest aviation network. Air India recently joined the alliance.

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