Lufthansa’s focussed approach to India
In an interview with , Wolfgang Will, the new Director of Lufthansa Passenger Airlines for South Asia, talks about the airline’s future strategies.
Succeeding Axel Hilgers, who served as Lufthansa’s Director, India since 2008; Will moves to India from Mexico City where he was Director, Mexico and Central America.
On the occasion, Will said, “We expect to continue our success and growth in the Indian market and will continue to invest and improve our products and services.” Thanking Axel Hilgers for his commitment in his tenure in India,
Steffen Harbarth, Vice
India is one of the most important intercontinental markets for Lufthansa
President Asia & Pacific, Lufthansa said, “Despite challenges, we have introduced new products and services and it was the first market in Asia to receive our new Business Class in the B747-800.”
The airline is clearly focussing on reliability and providing quality products and services, than just witnessing higher growth rates. Harbarth added, “India is now our focus and we know we will work hard today to secure our success in the future.”
Will further added, “I am coming to a country 10 times bigger than where I had been, and it’s a challenge and commitment to maintain the airline's position in this market. There is a lot of work to do since we are in a very competitive market.”
Regarding the A380, Harbarth said, “We have the A380 on our list for India since years and we were one of the carriers wanting access to A380 operations into the country. We are happy that we can operate the aircraft now, however, we are still in the process of evaluating as to where and when we can deploy it.” When questioned about the high ATF costs and airport fees, Hilgers added that the airline has been facing the increases at the new terminals since the past one and a half years, and obviously it is hampering the profitability of the routes. “If an airport like Terminal 3 in Delhi is increasing the airport fees by over 340 per cent, it will decrease your profit margin. We consider this increase too high and not justified, which made us take the issue to the courts.”