Lufthansa Files Suit Against Modiluft To Recover Planes

The Lufthansa case was filed on October 31 in Mumbai high court and the arguments will begin on Wednesday.

A Lufthansa spokesman said that "the legal arena is the last and final resort for the company and it was seeking expeditious return of aircraft and remuneration of dues". The dues relate to nine contracts covering lease rentals, management support, cockpit crew and technical support.

S K Modi who is in London could not be contacted. However, top ModiLuft officials said Lufthansa had considerably damaged the S K Modi group's reputation by making "wild" allegations.

It was on Lufthansa's insistence that the ModiLuft had dropped its plans to sue the German airlines for $100 million earlier, they added. It had then been decided to sort the issue through negotiations, and an initial meeting between the two companies had been held in London.

 

However, in spite of repeated reminders Lufthansa had failed to arrange for subsequent meetings to resolve the wrangle and had instead filed the suit.

ModiLuft and Lufthansa severed ties on May 29 after they failed to resolve their differences. ModiLuft was then flying three Lufthansa aircraft whose lease was extended by four weeks from May 29. Since then the aircraft have been with ModiLuft and currently only one is flying. Two were grounded owing to maintenance problems.

Lufthansa said the filing of the case does not in any way affect its other plans for India. "Next time we will do our homework more thoroughly," the spokesman said.