Lufthansa plans to enhance ties with Jet Airways for increased connectivity

Bullish on Indian market, European airliner group Lufthansa plans to enhance bilateral ties with Jet Airways for increased connectivity to new cities and launch flight from Brussels to Mumbai next month.

Lufthansa Group, which operates 60 flights to and from India per week, has recently introduced the fuel-efficient A350-900 aircraft on Munich-Delhi route.

"We are also looking to intensify the bilateral relationship between Jet Airways and Lufthansa," chairman of the executive board and CEO of Deutsche Lufthansa AG Carsten Spohr said on Wednesday.

Already, Lufthansa and Jet Airways operate code share flights on certain routes and this collaboration is likely to be expanded further.

Code share allows an airline to book its passengers for destination where it does not fly through a partner carrier.

Recently, the European major had expanded its partnership with Gulf carrier Etihad Airways -- which is a strategic partner of Jet Airways. All the three carriers have significant presence in the European market.

"We have some code share going with Jet Airways. We would like to intensify and may be enlarge our portfolio of code share... That means flights to second tier cities which we are not operating directly could be destinations where we cooperate in terms of code share," senior director (South Asia) at Lufthansa Group Wolfgang Will said at a press meet.

He also noted code share has been a healthy component in their services. Soon, Lufthansa would be introducing the A350-900 plane on Munich-Mumbai route apart from increasing the frequencies of its services between Pune and Frankfurt. "The services between Brussels and Mumbai would start by end of March," he noted.

Besides, the group would be naming one of its big aircraft flying to India as 'Delhi'. "This shows the importance of Delhi as a hub and India as a market to us," Spohr said.

Meanwhile, the Airbus 350-900 plane has been configured to seat 293 passengers, including 224 in economy class. This aircraft consumes 25 per cent less fuel, emits 25% less carbon dioxide and generates 50% less noise. In the Asia-Pacific, Lufthansa Group flies to 18 destinations in eight countries, operating 249 weekly flights from this region to Europe.