Lufthansa Pune-Frankfurt flight soon

24 April, 2008:

Lufthansa Airlines plans to expand its services to key Indian cities for both business travellers and leisure travelers by adding a Pune-Frankfurt direct flight from July 1, 2008.

With the introduction of the new direct flight, Lufthansa, Germany’s biggest airline, will carry passengers on the Pune-Frankfurt route non-stop six times a week in an Airbus A319, which has been refitted as a Business Jet, said Dr Karl-Rudolf Rupprecht, senior vice-president, Hub Management, Frankfurt.

When the new flight becomes operational, Lufthansa would become the second international carrier to offer an all-business class flight to India, after the Japanese carrier ANA.

“The Lufthansa services,” Rupprecht explained, “are increasing in line with the ongoing, very dynamic economic development in India. With seven non-stop destinations and 55 flights a week, Lufthansa remains the leading European airline in India. We have almost quadrupled our flights to India since 2001, when we operated 15 flights a week to three destinations.”

PrivatAir, a specialist in VIP and business aviation, will operate the Pune-Frankfurt aircraft.

The refitted Airbus A319 will have 48 lie-flat seats. When fully stretched out, these seats provide a near-horizontal sleeping surface with a length of 2 metres (6'6").

The other attractions of the Pune-Frankfurt non-stop aircraft, according to Rupprecht, are bigger seat pitches, more generous table-top areas, power ports for notebooks as well as a reading lamp that is integrated into the seat provide ideal conditions for business travelers to work during the flight.

The spacious layout of the cabin gives the passengers a very quiet and relaxed atmosphere and they can enjoy individualised in-flight service, he added.

Pune, in western India, located about 200 kilometres south-east of Mumbai (formerly Bombay), is emerging as one of the biggest industrial cities in India. The city houses several large international firms in the fields of information technology, biotechnology, and biochemistry.

The region is also getting to be the hub of automotive industry as well as a key manufacturing base in India for many international carmakers. Foreign automobile manufacturing companies such as Mercedes, Volkswagen, Renault, Fiat, Skoda and Audi as well as Indian car manufacturers like Tata Motors and Bajaj Auto are currently making cars in their plants at Pune.

Pune is especially becoming a main spot for German firms – about 200 German companies are at present represented there.

The Lufthansa Pune-Frankfurt flight will depart at 09:15 A.M., daily except on Sundays, and will arrive in Frankfurt at 14:35 P.M. The Lufthansa Frankfurt - Pune flight will leave Frankfurt at 19.50 P.M., and arrive at Pune airport at 07.35, daily except on Saturdays. The scheduled flight time for the Pune-Frankfurt flight is between eight hours 15 and eight hours 50.

The return fare in the Lufthansa Business Jet from Frankfurt to Pune can be booked at the special introductory fare of 2,199 euros from April 24, 2008, till the end of June 2008. This is inclusive of all taxes, fees and the Lufthansa Ticket Service Charge of 15 euros for bookings made online.

Lufthansa, according to Dr Karl-Rudolf Rupprecht, is expanding its route network globally in a big way in the summer of 2008, with 15 new destinations – taking the total number of destinations to 204 in 81 countries. The airline is also raising its seating capacity on its entire network by 7.4% over 2007.

In India, Lufthansa is considering introducing larger aircraft in view of a huge rise in demand on its Kolkata-Frankfurt and Delhi-Munich services.

Lufthansa, a leading member of the global airline grouping Star Alliance, currently operates daily non-stop flights on the Delhi-Frankfurt, Delhi-Munich routes and daily services from Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad to Frankfurt. Besides, there is the thrice-a-week Kolkata-Frankfurt flight.