Lufthansa to invest $10 million to hike share in India tourism<\/p>\n
NEW DELHI (Reuter): Germany's Lufthansa Airlines, seeking to
\nincrease its hold on India's burgeoning tourist market, will
\ninvest US$10 million to promote the local travel industry, an
\nairline spokesman said on Saturday.<\/p>\n
He said Lufthansa chairman Juergen Weber, who accompanied
\nGerman Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel to New Delhi last week, told
\nIndian officials the airline saw an increasingly important role
\nfor itself in the domestic market.<\/p>\n
Weber, on his second Indian visit in three months, believed
\nLufthansa could work with state-owned Air India to increase
\ntourist inflow from Germany and other European countries.<\/p>\n
\"A new Indo-German bilateral... would enable us to increase
\nour flights to India and launch, jointly with Air India, our
\nTourism Development Fund to increase the flow of German tourists
\nto the country,\" Lufthansa spokesman Kavin Sethi quoted Weber as
\nsaying during his recent visit.<\/p>\n
Germany is among the few countries to have been allowed to
\nbring in more flights. Some 40 countries have requested
\nadditional landing rights in India.<\/p>\n
Sethi said Lufthansa had committed $10 million in the
\nbilateral agreement with Air India to launch the fund to market
\nIndia as a tourism destination in Germany.<\/p>\n
The fund, to be administered by representatives of the two
\ncarriers and the Indian government, will be created and
\nmaintained from money Lufthansa will pay Air India for ferrying
\npassengers to and from India.<\/p>\n
Sethi said Lufthansa's investments would be stretched over a
\nfive-year period.<\/p>\n
Aviation industry sources said the Indian government had asked
\nLufthansa to contribute to the fund what would normally have been
\nAir India's share in the profits.<\/p>\n
\"But Air India lacks the resources to fly to Germany, not
\nhaving enough aircraft,\" an aviation industry analyst told
\nReuters. Sethi declined to comment.<\/p>\n
China<\/p>\n
Sethi said apart from India, Lufthansa was eying China as
\nanother major booming market.<\/p>\n
\"No international airline could afford to overlook these two
\ncountries,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Lufthansa began a new flight to Frankfurt from the southern
\nIndian city of Madras in July and may soon start another to cope
\nwith high passenger traffic.<\/p>\n
Weber said the German carrier was also considering a new tie-
\nup with ModiLuft, one of the four big Indian private airlines.
\nModiLuft has a technical and training agreement with Lufthansa.
\nIts aircraft are on lease from Lufthansa.<\/p>\n
ModiLuft is not yet a scheduled airline.<\/p>\n
Weber said that once the government decided to ease
\nrestrictions on private airlines, Lufthansa could opt for an
\nequity stake in ModiLuft. He did not give details.<\/p>\n
India allowed private airlines two years ago as part of its
\nfar-reaching economic reforms, but it has yet to accord them the
\nsame status as its state-owned domestic Indian Airlines.<\/p>\n
Lufthansa's new bilateral agreement with Air India earlier
\nthis year allows it to increase its weekly flights to 15 from the
\npresent 10. Madras was the first stop the airline chose.<\/p>\n
\"We have a load factor of 68 percent on our new flight from
\nMadras, which is more than we expected,\" Sethi said.<\/p>",
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