India gives Lufthansa a superjumbo size headache

Mumbai/New Delhi: An indifferent response from India's ministry of civil aviation has left German flag carrier Lufthansa's plans to ply the A380 superjumbo on its India routes in limbo. Apparently, the ministry has refused to take a clear stand on Lufthansa's request- neither clearing the proposal nor approving it.

Lufthansa wants to introduce the Airbus A380 service on its Delhi-Frankfurt route. The carrier has recently increased frequency on the Delhi-Frankfurt/Munich sectors.

The carrier has already taken delivery of seven of these superjumbos and is due to acquire another next month. This latest acquisition was due for deployment on the India route from 15 May.

Apparently, the ministry's reasoning is that allowing Lufthansa to operate the A380 would mean raising the airline's capacity on the sector. The introduction of this state-of-the –art 500-plus seater aircraft would also impact the business of domestic carriers, ministry officials are being quoted as saying.

The ministry of civil aviation clears seat allocation for all sectors.

Depending on the configuration the superjumbo offers up to 150 more seats per aircraft, as compared to a Boeing 747-400, or 255 additional seats as compared to a Boeing 777-300 ER or 777-200 LR. These are the versions that are most commonly deployed by Indian carriers on long-haul international flights.