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Lufthansa Launches Tri-Weekly Service To Hyderabad
ET&T Staff - Hyderabad
Lufthansa German Airlines recently launched their new tri-weekly
service between Hyderabad and Frankfurt. The launch that took place in Hyderabad
saw VIPs such as the German Ambassador to India Heimo Richter and Lufthansa
general manager passenger sales India and director South Asia Werner Heesen.
With the new service, Lufthansa operates 34 flights a week to India. These include
daily flights between Delhi-Frankfurt, Mumbai-Frankfurt, Chennai-Frankfurt and
Bangalore-Frankfurt, and three flights a week between Hyderabad-Frankfurt and
Delhi-Munich.
The operation of the new Hyderabad-Frankfurt route was made
possible by the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Lufthansa
and Air-India in August 2003. This bilateral agreement allows for a gradual
expansion of flights between India and Germany. In addition, the agreement allowed
customers on both airlines to collect and redeem miles for their respective
programmes - Miles & More and Flying Returns.
The Grand Finale
A 100 ft wide and 16 ft high stage was set in front of the beautiful facade
of the Falukhnama Palace for the grand launch of the new Hyderabad-Frankfurt
service. An audio visual film shot on the first flight starting from Frankfurt
to Hyderabad was screened as the curtain raiser. The film captured the departure
celebrations at the Frankfurt airport and the arrival event at the Hyderabad
airport. Reactions of passengers aboard the flight were aired.
A ‘mashal’ dance with 30 dancers all over the palace introduced the
first flight Lufthansa crew. Added laser effects and a dance performance on
the flight of the crane accentuated the presentation. 60 child violinists from
Hyderabad performed live for the audience, which was supported by a laser show
and musical fountains.
The finale saw Manasi Scott joining the violinists to sing the Lufthansa track
live on the stage with all members of Lufthansa staff. And finally, fireworks
and fire effects lit up the sky as the stage event culminated.
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Lufthansa chairman of the executive board and
CEO, Wolfgang Mayrhuber in an exclusive with Express Travel
& Tourism, talks about the airlines future growth
What was the thought behind the Hyderabad launch?
We selected Hyderabad as our fifth gateway in India
due to its excellent growth potential, its role as a base for many international
companies focusing on both IT and biotechnology, its proximity to other
southern cities and most importantly, the increasingly international lifestyle
in the city. With this service, both business travellers and tourists
from the city have direct links to our hub Frankfurt, which is the centre
of Europe and offers excellent connections to other cities in and around
the region.
What are Lufthansa's future plans for India?
The importance of the Indian market to Lufthansa
can be gauged from the fact that it is the second country in the world,
the first being the US, where we directly fly out of five cities. Subsequently,
having recently launched this service, we would certainly look at adding
daily flights on this route in future. We definitely have plans to further
expand in India and that would be in terms of adding more destinations,
increasing flight frequencies and inducting larger aircraft. On the destination
front, we would consider Kolkata but that is still in the pipeline. Having
captured 12 per cent of the Indian-outbound traffic to Europe, we are
looking at targeting 50 per cent of our sales through e-ticketing across
our global operations this year.
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