Runaway success & still running

speaks to Wolfgang Will, Director, South Asia, Lufthansa about the airline's future plans, its marketing strategies and the importance of India as a route.

Which new aircraft are to be launched by Lufthansa and on what routes?

Lufthansa already is the first airline to operate the world’s longest aircraft, the new Boeing 747-8 to India (Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru). This aircraft already features our latest onboard products and services, including the new Business Class seat that can be turned into a full lie-flat bed. We always aim to offer our Indian customers our top products. In our long haul markets, Lufthansa operates the A330, A340-300, A340-600, A380, Boeing 747-400 and B747-8. We are also looking forward to operate the A380 to India in the future. We have not decided yet when and where we will operate the aircraft to.

What is the load-factor and the number of frequencies from India for the airline?

India is a key market for Lufthansa. As of now, we operate 66 frequencies a week to/from 5 Indian metros. Lufthansa carried more than 104 million passengers last year. Our philosophy to grow with the market, but without producing overcapacity, has also helped us to emerge as the leading European airline group in this market.

What has been Lufthansa’s marketing and promotion strategy for the travel trade?

In our endeavour to reach out to maximum customers and trade, and educate them on Lufthansa’s brand offering, we regularly launch marketing and promotional campaigns. Recently, we carried a programme 'Tale of 280 Cities', wherein the contest challenged its target audience to take the 90 second test which required them to name cities from the 280 city network of Lufthansa group through a virtual ride.

Additionally, Lufthansa has been providing an unprecedented platform to budding entrepreneurs in India for the past three years through its popular initiative ' Runway2success'. The show is focussed on discovering, mentoring and rewarding potential leaders of tomorrow. Lufthansa’s Runway2success is an initiative aimed at inspiring Small and Medium Entrepreneurs (SMEs) to showcase their business blueprints and win prizes to implement their business plan. With this initiative, Lufthansa demonstrates its unrivalled passion for the SME sector, by calling for entries of business ideas from entrepreneurs.