Lufthansa suspends India flights over travel bubble discord

Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt Int’l) suspended all of its flights to India from September 30 through October 20, 2020, citing disagreement over the terms of the “travel bubble” between the countries and the rejection of its proposed schedule by the Indian authorities. “India has so far not accepted the invitation by the German government to discuss details regarding a temporary travel agreement between both countries,” the German carrier said. India and Germany tentatively agreed on the “travel bubble” in July 2020 as a means to allow travel for the residents of the two countries between them on direct flights. However, an unnamed Indian official quoted by the Times of India said that the rules of the bubble were disadvantageous for Air India due to the restrictions imposed by the German government. As such, Air India was only able to operate three-four flights per week, while Lufthansa flew 23x weekly to India prior to the suspension. The official said that seeking to rectify the imbalance, the Indian authorities offered to authorise only 7x weekly services by Lufthansa to India. This proposal was reportedly refused by the airline. Alain Chisari, Vice-President (Asia-Pacific Sales) at Lufthansa told Bloomberg Markets Asia that the two governments were in talks about the resumption of flights. He underlined that Lufthansa hoped to serve all four Indian cities it flew to prior to September 30 (Bangalore Int’l, Chennai, Delhi Int’l, and Mumbai Int’l, according to the ch-aviation schedules module).