Lufthansa to bring back Airbus A380 to Delhi next summer

Lufthansa plans to bring back its Airbus A380 for Delhi flights in summer 2023, increasing frequencies and expanding routes in India

German air carrier Lufthansa will be reintroducing the biggest passenger aircraft, its Airbus A380, for flights to Delhi next summer besides adding more flights than pre-Covid levels to India on the back of strong demand.

The A380 aircraft will also have a first-class cabin.

The announcement coincided with the airline’s 60th anniversary of connecting Delhi with Germany -- it was on September 1, 1963 that its inaugural Boeing 720 flight from Frankfurt touched down in Delhi after stopovers in Rome, Cairo, Kuwait and Karachi.

“India opened very early [post Covid-19] and in a very good way; we are at 100% recovery versus 2019 in India,” said Elise Becker, vice-president, Asia-Pacific, Lufthansa Group Airlines, in an exclusive interview to The Hindu. “It is also one of the few markets where we will see more frequencies than in 2019 by the end of the year. In India, we are in a stable and strong demand situation,” she added.

Lufthansa has been flying the A380 aircraft to Delhi since 2014, but it was withdrawn in 2019 from various routes. Following a strong surge in demand, the airline decided to bring it back from the summer of 2023 and aims to reactivate a total of eight of its A380s by 2025.

In April, the airline also announced that it would be connecting Bengaluru with Munich via thrice-weekly flights from November 2023, as well as returning after a hiatus to Hyderabad from January which it will connect with Frankfurt, also with thrice-weekly flights. The airline has now decided to further raise its frequencies to Bengaluru from Munich with five weekly flights, which takes its total flights to India to 64. With these additions, the airline will surpass its pre-Covid tally of 56 weekly flights to India.

“Indian market is the only market where we are opening new routes and that is a very strong signal of our commitment to the market. There are a few other routes under examination,” said Ms. Becker.