Air-India, Lufthansa Sign Strategic Alliance

ET&T Staff - Mumbai

Lufthansa and Air-India are poised to significantly improve their market leadership positions on India- Europe-USA routes with the new strategic alliance agreement signed between the two airlines on October 1 2004. Wolfgang Mayrhuber, chairman, Executive Board of Deutsche Lufthansa AG, and V Thulasidas, chairman and managing director of Air-India, signed a strategic alliance agreement in Mumbai. The objective of the partnership is expansion of the offer of flights between Germany and India. All flights between the two countries will be operated by the two airlines in future in code-sharing. New routes will be added. Through the cooperation in the area of frequent flyer programmes, customers on flights of both airlines can in future collect and redeem miles for the respective programmes - ‘Miles and More and Flying Returns’.

“India is an important market with great growth potential. We are banking on the dynamism of this market and can see considerable potential through the cooperation,” said Mayrhuber. V Thulasidas, chairman and managing Director, Air-India announced that the carrier has been accorded the IOSA Audit Certificate by IATA last week which puts it in the league of a dozen airlines conforming to quality standards required for joining global alliances. He also said that India-Germany/ Europe and India - USA were very important markets for Air-India which it plans to serve over Frankfurt in alliance with Lufthansa. Air-India will soon link Bangalore and Hyderabad directly to Frankfurt and enhance Delhi-Frankfurt operations to a daily going beyond to US West Coast.

In addition to the code sharing between Germany and India, the code of Air-India will also be bookable on Lufthansa connecting flights from Frankfurt to Berlin, Munich, Stuttgart and Dusseldorf to Amsterdam, Geneva, Zurich and Lyon as well as to Washington, Denver, Detroit, Chicago and Los Angeles. The cooperation agreement signed results from a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) which the two carriers signed on August 26, 2003. As a result of the new cooperation, there will now be a further six weekly flights between Frankfurt and Mumbai as well as three weekly flights between Frankfurt and Delhi which are operated by Air-India and can now be booked with a Lufthansa code. Air-India also plans to operate daily services between London and Mumbai and London and Delhi and link Bangalore with Frankfurt four times a week from March 2005. The Lufthansa - Air India pact paves the way for joint development of air services on India- Europe- USA route.