enjoystravel

According to some press reports, with the launching of daily service FRA-MAA (Frankfurt - Chennai/Madras India), India will have the highest LH frequency in Asia (24 per week). They now have daily flts to BOM, DEL and MAA and 3 times weekly to BLR. Also, to handle peak demand, they plan to add additional flts to BLR in Jan and Feb and increase further seasonal capacity with larger aircraft.

Press reports were also quoting the South Asia head for LH passenger operations as saying that they expect to grow a lot in South India and load factors were in excess of 80% to India. Their only constraint in growth seems to be permission from the Indian govt to add even more capacity. They expect 25% growth in FRA-MAA route and double digits growth to India in general.

With all this growth, does it get any easier using RTW in First or Biz? Are awards getting any better or is the increased capacity being more than overwhelmed by the increased passenger numbers?

DELHOPPER

Unfortunately does the growth in Ex India aitravel not cope with the extremely high demand. Living in DEL it is imparative to have SEN Status on LH and a minimum of one more seat guarantee card, in my case BA Gold. Sometimes flights are so heavily overbooked, that it is even with the booking guarantee not possible to get on a flight to Europe for days. Eventhough in this cases my waiting list experience is ok, I also draw that on the fact that they know me in DEL station.

The Indian Government is restricting the landing rights for foreign carriers and LH is alreday the one with the most slots, because they cooperate with Air India and Germany has not restricted landing rights to Air India.

British Airways wants to add many flights and add destinations like Bangalore for example, but the Indian government protects Air India and will only allow BA more landing rights with AI getting more landing rights in Heathrow. Eventhough it is a government, I think they have a point. One good thing is that we are now getting an additional daily nonstop to Frankfurt from BOM with Air India on a new 744.

Air India is not too bad by the way. I really prefer them in Business towards Lufthansa, which I feel is pretty bad on overnight flights, so they need to upgrade a lot (Out of India the upgrade only costs 200 Euros at the station). On day fights its bearable on board of LH. Because most LH India flights are operated on older 744 I am pretty sure we will be the last country to have the new C class rolled out......which also comes with less competition.



[This message has been edited by DELHOPPER (edited Nov 30, 2003).]

Scott218

How are the C loads like for Indian flights? I heard that Y is always overbooked but F/C are not. May be there is an opportunity to get an op upgrade.

oliver2002

Plenty of op-ups out of FRA since Y is overbooked all the time. But here they strictly favour SEN who paid higher fares and there are plenty of that lot on each flight. If you book C and have any sort of LH status you get op-up to F the moment you ask at the gate.

The other way round you get asked if you want to upgrade with miles when you check in at the F/C counter. No op-up unless you are a buddy of the local station manager.

But service is not the same as transatlantic LH. Better bet would be VIE-DEL vv with OS. Also packed with US pax travelling to India, but C is good and op-ups available the moment you ask in the lounge. Be nice: austrians are very service oriented. Status pax get a better seat (bulkhead+window) if no op-op is possible.

Regards Oliver

enjoystravel

DELHOPPER, The situation out of DEL should improve with more frequency to MAA and BLR and larger planes during the peak season. A lot of the DEL pax are not necessarily city origination but are also connecting pax from BLR, HYD and MAA.

Another interesting fact is that LH cargo and some groups have IT teams in Bangalore and fly there a lot. Most of their senior managers have First class previleges and many mangers have Biz privileges. This takes up quite a few seats. Hopefully increased capacity will mitigate this impact.

enjoystravel

According to this URL

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...how/425605.cms

Lufthansa "has declared Bangalore the most profitable inter-continental destination across its entire global network."

There are also reports about Lufthansa wanting to start services to new cities within India though it is not clear that they will get the rights.

B747-437B

Considering that LH currently controls almost 40% of total westbound capacity from Bangalore, it isn't that hard to figure out why!

Non-competitive duopolies are profitable and LH/AI milk that market perfectly.

jpatokal

Poking along the article list...

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...how/440551.cms

...I was surprised to see that despite 29% growth (!), BLR handled only 2.9 million passengers in 2003; and that's the total for both domestic and international. The new 'ultra-modern' airport now under construction is designed to support -- wait for it -- 4 million. Is it just be, or do these figures seem rather pessimistic given the economic boom and the proliferation of low-cost carriers?

oliver2002

Emirates is starting daily non-stop DXB-NYC flights with their 340-500 this summer. More american flights will follow as the new aircraft arrive.
Since they have multiple daily flights with 330s from all indian international airports except CCU, they are going to give LH a run for their US-India business.

LH is gearing up for this and roping in AI to share slots with them. AI is happy to share slots since they will not have aircraft to fly all the routes they have rights on for quite some time.

Now how happy I would be if LH improves their product on Indian routes since they make soo much money there...

Regards Oliver

B747-437B

In 2002, Bangalore came in NINTH among Indian airports for international passenger traffic, so there is a long way to go before they even start sniffing the big leagues.

Mumbai (BOM) : 4,427,702 pax
Delhi (DEL) : 3,456,593 pax
Chennai (MAA) : 1,701,741 pax
Thiruvananthapuram (TRV) : 735,421 pax
Kolkata (CCU) : 534,281 pax
Kochi (COK) : 419,294 pax
Hyderabad (HYD) : 332,365 pax
Kozhikode (CCJ) : 270,830 pax
Bangalore (BLR) : 210,657 pax
Goa (GOI) : 193,582 pax

MumbaiDan

BLR could take up easily three 747's to Europe (with connect to US gateways) each day. But the Indian government does not give out landing rights. I am very eager to see what happens end of March when the temporary LH rights for the additional flights have to be renewed. It is election year in India so I hope they will grant the rights. But you never know what the politicians here consider to be more ffective on election day, protectionism or liberalistaion....

meghadhoot

Just Curious.. why is not Delta or American or any US airline.. vying for BLR.. other than the Indian Govt. policy..

malgudi

MumbaiDan,

Here's the answer to your query (re: what would happen once the current open skies initiative ends):

http://www.hindu.com/2004/01/30/stor...3006430400.htm