Lufthansa seeks government approval to fly in super jumbos

New Delhi: Europe’s largest airline by passengers, Deutsche Lufthansa AG, wants to be the first carrier to fly the “super jumbo” A380 to India in summer 2010 and has asked the civil aviation ministry to permit it to fly the double-decker aircraft to Indian cities.
If the ministry approves, the German carrier will likely beat peers Emirates Airline and Indian firm Kingfisher Airlines Ltd to deploy the world's biggest commercial passenger jet in Indian skies.
The Airbus SAS-made A380 began commercial operations when Singapore Airlines Ltd used it late last year to fly from the island nation to Sydney. Airlines across the world plan to replace their old aircraft with the A380 on high-traffic global routes to address problems of limited airport slots and restricted bilateral agreements between countries.
Lufthansa counts Indian cities among the first of its choices for the A380 routes. “We have shortlisted Delhi and Mumbai,” said Werner Heesen, director of South Asia for Lufthansa, referring to the more than a dozen global routes that the airline is looking to deploy the 15 A380s it is acquiring. “It will be Delhi, then Mumbai,” he said.
29/04/08 Tarun Shukla/Livemint

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Categories: Airports Apr 2008, Foreign Apr 2008, New Apr 2008