New Delhi: India and Germany have finally reached an equitable agreement on flights to be operated by airlines of both countries under the air bubble agreement. Lufthansa will now operate 10 weekly flights — four to and from Delhi and three each to and from Mumbai and Bengaluru. Air India will operate seven flights a week with five to and from Delhi and two from Bengaluru.
A disagreement had arisen between India and Germany last month due to the disparity in the number of flights being operated by Lufthansa and AI. A senior Indian aviation official had then said while AI was operating three to four flights a week to and from Germany, Lufthansa was having 20 flights here. India had last month offered seven flights a week to Lufthansa which was not accepted by them.
As a result of this disagreement, Lufthansa had cancelled all its planned India flights between September 30 and October 20. Germany had withdrawn permission for AI to operate flights to Frankfurt in the first half of October. Due to this the Maharaja had cancelled all the 12 flights that were operate from October 1 to 14.
Now, with India and Germany finalising a more equitable number of flights — Lufthansa 10 weekly and AI 7 instead of the earlier AI 3-4 weekly and Lufthansa 20 — flights will resume.
Aviation minister H S Puri tweeted on Wednesday saying: “Flights between India and Germany recommence under air bubble arrangement. Lufthansa will operate from Delhi (4 days), Mumbai (3 days) and Bengaluru (3 days). Air India will operate 5 weekly flights from Delhi and 2 every week from Bengaluru to Frankfurt.”
Under the air bubble agreement with Lufthansa and Air France, Indian passengers were supposed to travel only between India and the EU on these airlines. The special arrangement conditions meant an Indian passenger eligible to travel under current rules could not fly from India to Germany and then take a connecting flight from there to North America. However, the EU carriers were taking that traffic also and were asked to abide by the terms of the air bubble.
21/10/20 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
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