Feb 17 (Reuters) - Air India and Lufthansa plan to fly more passengers between India and Europe and collaborate on areas such as route planning and IT infrastructure, the airlines said on Tuesday,
Air India and Lufthansa Join Forces to Boost Passenger Traffic
Air India and Lufthansa Partnership Overview
Feb 17 (Reuters) - Air India and Lufthansa plan to fly more passengers between India and Europe and collaborate on areas such as route planning and IT infrastructure, the airlines said on Tuesday, seeking to capitalise on the recently concluded India-EU free trade agreement.
Initial Focus on India and Europe
The airlines will initially focus on increasing traffic between India and Lufthansa's core markets of Germany, Austria, Belgium, Italy and Switzerland. The partnership would later expand to cover the rest of Europe and the Indian subcontinent.
Current Codeshare Operations
The carriers currently codeshare on 145 routes across 15 Indian and 29 European cities and 20 countries.
Future Collaboration Plans
The scope of the partnership will be finalised after the formation of a comprehensive joint business agreement, which will be subject to regulatory approvals.
In January, Air India entered a cooperation framework with Singapore Airlines to allow the carriers to increase routes, reduce overlap and more broadly enhance collaboration. Singapore Airlines holds a 25% stake in Air India.
(Reporting by Mridula Kumar in Bengaluru; Writing by Abinaya Vijayaraghavan; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)
