‘Seeing medium-term changes in traffic to and from India; increasing capacity here due to demand:’ Lufthansa

MUMBAI: The Israel-Iran war will change international traffic flows in and out of India and some other parts of the world “in the medium term”. It remains to be seen when Gulf carriers, which account for the lion’s share of this traffic, will be able to resume their pre-crisis flight schedules. Lufthansa senior vice president (sales, distribution and marketing) Frank Naeve said options to bring more group airlines to India are being evaluated. Currently, only Lufthansa, SWISS and ITA (formerly Alitalia) operate here. In an exclusive interview with The Times of India’s Saurabh Sinha, Naeve discusses the group’s India strategy and travel trends shaped by geopolitical realities over the past year. question. How are airlines responding to the challenges posed by the current situation in West Asia?answer. Airlines by their nature have been able to flexibly respond to the various challenges that have emerged over the past few years. Safety remains the top priority and operations are conducted in accordance with this fundamental principle.Our current focus is on getting people home safely from West Asia and ensuring ongoing connectivity. India is particularly important to us as it is our second largest international market after the United States. We are about to leverage India’s greatest transportation rights. Nonetheless (this month, given demand, we are significantly increasing capacity by deploying larger aircraft here.We deploy (500-seat) Airbus A380s instead of (280-seat) A350s between Munich and Delhi and Mumbai and Munich. There are other flights between Chennai and Frankfurt.question. In view of the demand, your partner Air India has also added additional flights. How do you plan to grow in the Indian market in the future?answer. As of now, only three group airlines – Lufthansa, SWISS and Alitalia – fly to India. Other airlines in the group that do not currently fly here include Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Discovery Airlines and Eurowings. While it’s still early days, we are evaluating bringing more group airlines here.Our cooperation with Air India is going very well. AI-Lufthansa recently signed a joint business agreement to strengthen cooperation and further develop our network. For customers, this means enhanced seamless connectivity to the growing network, with partner airlines adjusting their schedules to provide convenient connections.Our workforce in India continues to grow. Lufthansa Technik Service India and Lufthansa Systems both have global competence centers in Bangalore and employ more than 1,000 people. We are now bringing the latest aircraft and cabin products to India, including our Allegris business class.question. Lufthansa Group holds a significant share of the travel market between India and North America. Have you seen demand shrink over the past year?answer. Over the past few years, we have seen weak demand for travel in both directions in the Indo-Canada market. Recently however (with improved relations between the two countries and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s visit to India) demand has stopped declining and stabilized.As far as the US is concerned (given the visa issues in India, including for students), there is suppressed demand for travel from India to the US. But the surge in U.S. outbound travel more than makes up for it.