Kochi: Kochi’s dream of having direct flights to European destinations remains distant, with both Middle East and European airliners turning their back on the idea.
Hundreds of fliers from the state have been demanding direct connectivity from CIAL to European airports.
German airliner Lufthansa evinced some interest until a year ago, but developed cold feet as they reckoned the earnings would be limited: for one, there was no likelihood of getting substantial numbers of business class passengers to head for European destinations from Kochi.
“Since Kochi doesn’t have big businesses, there would be hardly any executives flying business class to European destinations on a regular basis. So, Lufthansa felt such flights would be economically unviable, and hence they backed out,” said informed sources. For the same reason, Air India is also not keen either, it is learnt.
02/03/13 Vinod Nedumudy/Deccan Chronicle
