Lufthansa eyes non-metros

Lufthansa German Airlines is now preparing to join the bandwagon of international carriers looking at non-metro India for growth. The airline is exploring plans to fly into two non-metro cities — Pune and Ahmedabad — next year as part of plans to spread its wings in the Indian skies.

"Besides expanding our footprint in the metro cities like Chennai and Hyderabad, we will look at smaller towns in western India next year. Pune and Ahmedabad are the best markets for this and we intend to start talks with the government on expanding into these cities next year," Lufthansa's GM (passenger sales) for India Werner Heesen said. Prior to that, the firm will restart flights to Kolkata this December — over three decades after it pulled out of the market to focus on Delhi and Mumbai. "The market was different then," Heesen said. "But today, West Bengal is showing among the fastest growth rates in the country. Even top industries like IT and others are shifting base from south of India to northeast."

The airline has temporarily withdrawn one flight from Hyderabad to start the Kolkata flight. "This is just a temporary arrangement and the Hyderabad flight will be restored when we start getting deliveries of new planes in February," Heesen added.

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