A-380's commercial flight to India may turn reality

New Delhi: India may soon see the first commercial operations of the world's largest airliner - Airbus A-380. German major Lufthansa has sought government nod to fly the superjumbo on a daily basis between Delhi and Frankfurt from May 15, making IGI its fifth destination for this aircraft after Tokyo, Beijing, Johannesburg and New York.
Enabling this would require alteration in the existing Indo-German bilateral agreement that allows Boeing 747 as the largest plane flying between the two countries, a clause that would have to be changed to the A-380. While Delhi now has a terminal and runway that can easily accommodate the A-380, the aviation ministry is in a bind over Lufthansa's request. The German giant is the lead partner of Star Alliance and is helping Air India get fit enough to join the consortia instead of letting the alliance admit another Indian carrier as the first Indian member.
So allowing Lufthansa fly A-380 here may not hurt `partner' AI's commercial interests but this permission would lead to similar requests from other giants like Emirates and Singapore Airlines that would be hard to decline with the German precedent. This, say highly placed sources, could lead to serious trouble for struggling Indian carriers as the superjumbo's wow factor will take away a lot of flyers from the desi airlines to hubs like Dubai and Singapore on the A-380s.
12/01/11 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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Categories: Airports Jan 2011, Foreign Jan 2011, New Jan 2011