Lufthansa awaits govt nod to fly A380 to India

Lufthansa German Airlines which launched the inaugural flight of the Airbus A380 – the world's largest aircraft – to San Francisco on May 10, is disappointed that the Indian government's permission to fly the superjumbo to Delhi has not yet been forthcoming.
The company says that it is in a position to do a quick launch of the A380 to Delhi's T3 terminal, as soon as the government's nod is received. Speaking to a group of Indian journalists, who were on a trip to San Francisco sponsored by Lufthansa, Mr Carsten Spohr, CEO, Lufthansa, said: “We would love to fly the A380 to India, and are waiting for Delhi to open up”.
Up in the air
It has been around two years since the government of Germany first approached the Indian government asking it to allow Lufthansa to fly the A380 to India. Follow-ups including a recent meeting of the German transport minister with the Aviation Ministry has not yet had the desired results.
As things stand, the Indian government seems to be vacillating on whether to open up Indian skies to the A380. Earlier, in his interaction with journalists in Delhi, Mr Axel Hilgers, General Manager-South Asia, Lufthansa, said, “We have received neither a yes nor a no.”
Reports suggest that the government is not yet inclined to let the A380 fly into India. Industry watchers point out that this could be a result of fears that a superjumbo like the A380 could eat into the international load factors of domestic players such as Air India, Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines.
18/05/11 Anand Kalyanaraman/Business Line

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Categories: Foreign May 2011