IT Correspondent
New Delhi, Sept 30:
German airline Lufthansa has cancelled all planned flights to India between 30 September and 20 October due to unexpected rejection of the airline’s planned flight schedule for October by Indian authorities, the airline said in a statement on Tuesday.
Lufthansa had applied for the continuation of special flights it was granted to operate until the end of September. This application process was necessary since India has so far not accepted the invitation by the German government to discuss details of temporary travel agreement between both the countries.
Lufthansa in the statement said that it urged the Indian authorities to work together with the German government in order to establish a temporary travel agreement between both countries.Such an agreement is necessary to address the urgent need of tens of thousands of Indians and foreign nationals for travel to and from India and would also help balance the interests of both countries’ airlines. Due to the Indian government’s rejection, Lufthansa will now have to cancel all planned flights between Germany and India between 30 September and 20 October,” the statement said.
At present India has air bubble arrangements with 13 countries including USA, UK, France, Germany, Canada, Maldives, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Nigeria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Japan. The government is currently in talks with several other countries for such arrangements. Air bubbles or travel corridors are systems established between two countries that allow carriers of both the countries to fly passengers either way without any restrictions.
An official of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) confirmed that an air bubble agreement between Indian and Germany was formalised in July 2020. An air bubble arrangement allows nationals of both countries to travel in either direction. However, there are restrictions in place for Indian nationals desiring to travel to Germany which was putting Indian carriers at a significant disadvantage resulting in inequitable distribution of traffic in favour of Lufthansa, he added.
“As against Indian carriers operating 3-4 flights a week, Lufthansa operated 20 flights a week. Despite this disparity we offered to clear 7 flights a week for Lufthansa which was not accepted by them. Yet the negotiations are continuing,” the official added.
