New Lufthansa flights between India, Germany

While the two countries have decided to increase the flight frequencies with immediate effect, they have also slated another round of discussions in February next year to further review their air traffic agreement.

"We are happy to get more rights to fly to India and have already enhanced frequencies on existing routes this summer. We are also launching the all-business class flight from Pune," Lufthansa's South Asia Director Warner Heesen said here.

Maintaining that the airline planned to "triple" its business from India in the next three years, he said the rights to operate to other destinations like Cochin and Goa would be exercised soon.

Heesen said the 45 frequencies being operated till March this year would increase to 55 from July 1 and 10 more to be added by this winter. The airline now operates to Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kolkata and Chennai.

Starting this summer, Lufthansa has added four flights a week between Mumbai and Munich, taking the weekly total to 10.

It has also increased flights to Kolkata from three to five.

Speaking on the new all-business class flight from Pune to Frankfurt, Heesen said an Airbus A-319 long haul aircraft would be used for six flights each week. "We have been operating such all-business flights to the Guklg and the US," he said.

Asked about the market response to proposed new flight starting next month, he said a large part of the business of this service would be taken care of by the long-term contracts the airline has entered into with major IT, pharma and automobile firms based in Maharashtra and Gujarat. The companies include big names like Daimler Chrysler, Volkswagen, Bajaj-Allianz, Wipro and Infosys.

"We are considering the business flight from Pune and those from Mumbai as a package for business travellers, who can fly as per their convenience," he said. The Pune-Frankfurt flight would be the only flight to the west from the city.

Heesen said Lufthansa was waiting for the Pune airport upgradation and extension of the runway to start flying wide-body aircraft like Airbus A-330 or A-340. "However, this will not happen before 2009-2010," he added.