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Home » Lufthansa » Why Lufthansa Is Boycotting India
Air IndiaLufthansa

Why Lufthansa Is Boycotting India

Matthew Klint Posted onOctober 3, 2020November 14, 2023 28 Comments

a group of airplanes on a runway

Lufthansa has scrapped all flights to India in an escalating feud over access to world’s second most populous nation. India declares that Germany is not being fair in terms of entry restrictions for its own citizens. Lufthansa claims it is unreasonably being held hostage to those negotiations and the boycotts against India are necessary. Now Germany has responded by blocking Air India in retaliation.

After Lufthansa Boycotts India, Germany Blocks Air India

Lufthansa had planned 23 weekly flights to India during the month of October. That included the resumption of service to Chennai (Bangalore, Delhi, and Mumbai began operating in June).

But India said not so fast. While Germany has offered to resume discussions with India over reciprocal travel, India is currently the world’s worst COVID-19 hotspot and will soon overtake the United States in holding the dubious honor of the nation with the most cases.

India, however, says that German travel restrictions against Indian citizens put “Indian carriers at a significant disadvantage resulting in inequitable distribution of traffic in favor of Lufthansa.”

India’s Transport Ministry adds:

“As against Indian carriers operating three to four flights a week, Lufthansa operated 20 flights a week. In spite of this disparity, we offered to clear seven flights a week to Lufthansa, which was not accepted by them. Negotiations continue.”

Negotiations may be continuing, but Lufthansa has pulled all flights. Instead of accepting seven flights per week, Lufthansa has suspended all flights until October 20, 2020. In a statement, Lufthansa urged Germany and India to reach a solution:

“Lufthansa sincerely urges 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.”

India seems to be conflating the German government issue of restricting entry of India citizens with Lufthansa’s desire to ramp up service to India. However, in response to India’s denial of Lufthansa’s October flight schedule to India, Germany has blocked all Air India flights through October 14, 2020.

CONCLUSION

Two observations. One, COVID-19 is growing rapidly in India. Any notion that Germany must reciprocate entry regulations does not seem proportionate with the facts on the ground. Second, now neither Air India nor Lufthansa are offering flights between Germany and Europe. While the move helps carriers like British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, it hurts business travelers, citizens looking to get home from both nations, and dual legal residents. Time to work out a compromise…

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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28 Comments

  1. Jackson Henderson Reply
    October 3, 2020 at 10:25 am

    Germany is better off without travel from India. As we have seen, western countries have a difficult time doing business in India and there is a reason BRICs isn’t a term heard anymore. Likewise, India affords nothing to Germany that Germany isn’t better of producing at home.

    • shashidhar Reply
      October 3, 2020 at 1:17 pm

      Ok…then produce only for yourself… don’t go hunting for other markets…we will wait and watch… whether its Tesla or the Tiger Tanks

    • PM1 Reply
      October 3, 2020 at 5:33 pm

      @Jackson Henderson – Plenty of German businesses have subsidiaries in India and vice versa. E.g. India is an important market for the VW Group and it is important to allow travel between the countries to facilitate business. Are you saying that VW should exit the Indian market?

      • Jackson Henderson Reply
        October 3, 2020 at 11:16 pm

        Yes, Škoda Auto Volkswagen India should exit the country as it has 1% market share as of 2019 and has lost money the last 3 years. GM exited India in the last 2 years. India is a tough market for Western firms because the technical innovation isn’t going to work in a country where 85% of the population is considered poor. Local producers and maybe the Japanese/Koreans are more adept at producing bare bone cars well suited for the market. A company with a 1% market share isn’t going to develop a profitable cheap engine when it will have no application in its big markets.

        • DM Reply
          October 4, 2020 at 3:36 am

          Jackson Henderson yes it make sense to exit market that is not profitable. Of there is demand from the 15% of ppl who have money they can always import them. But it’s true the best selling foreign car there is Suzuki maybe now Hyundai or KIA too price is every sensitive there. Maybe one day in some distance future when they managed to lift the rest of their population from poverty then German companies can re-enter the market.

        • Mazo Reply
          October 4, 2020 at 10:05 pm

          If VW Skoda is losing share in China, never had any share in India, cant crack any other Asian Market then why are they there in India or Asia at all?? Even Chinese companies have more market share in India in every product than German. But apparently German companies are good at losing money by remaining in markets nobody wants them in.. Same goes with motorcycles, electronics or even IT. 90% of Dailmer IT is done in India, despite their market share being less than 1%!
          Germany offers nothing to India that India cant get cheaper elsewhere. Thats why even the US has recognised the unfair trade tactics of Germany and the EU and imposed tarrifs..thats why VW cheats and gets caught in CA while Germany turns a blind eye.. thats also why German companies remain in India, they have no better options!

          • Andrej
            October 6, 2020 at 4:40 am

            Regarding the reputation of German products:
            I’m too lazy to count until I find India…but it’s pretty easy to count until Germany.

            https://www.visualcapitalist.com/respected-made-in-labels-country/

        • Vihar Reply
          October 4, 2020 at 10:58 pm

          Go tell that to Merkel and the corporates. They will laugh at you. You should know German Auto industry is playing a Catch up now with EV’s and the innovation. Also, all the Pharma from Bayer to Roche, they depend on India to mass produce. Germany is begging for High skilled immigrants. Whom do you think Germany is asking for, South East Asia!
          Lufthansa has a terrible Customer service, Jus saying lol

        • Anon Reply
          October 5, 2020 at 2:57 am

          A fancy German butcher opens up a beef shop in India. The butcher says he sells the most hygienic product, bred and imported from Germany. After a while the butcher found that Indians doesn’t buy his product. So he came to a conclusion that people are poor to buy his “hygienic beef”. So he Shut his shop and left the country.

          In reality half the population is vegetarian and most non vegetarian don’t eat beef.

          But as always instead of researching the failures, the butcher comes to a conclusion that Indians are poor.

          Once a barbarian always a barbarian. Good luck saving your tribe.

          #indian #idriveskoda #vegitarian #ilovefrance

    • Ramani Reply
      October 4, 2020 at 5:20 pm

      I think you need a refresher course on India. India may be a poor country by your definition. But the size of the population makes every company company worth the name drool. Maybe the Japs and Koreans adapted better to the market than the Europeans. Look at US. The Germans, (VW, BMW, Audi, Benz etc) are way behind Japanese and Koreans (Honda/Acura, Toyota/Lexus, Nissan/Infiniti, Hyundai and Kia). Even in the e segment, Germans are nowhere. So let’s not talk about German superiority here. Let’s simply say Lufthansa wanted to take advantage of the air bubble to cater to US traffic which is considerable. No harm in that as it is a commercial decision and justified. But let’s not out on airs and point fingers. Maybe there’s a lot more to be said on both sides. Let the countries negotiate and arrive at a mutually acceptable solution. After all India and Germany have excellent bilateral relations. Let the Govts do their job.

      • B R IYER Reply
        October 4, 2020 at 7:48 pm

        Well written. The fact remains that Indian market is big, there is opportunity, only if you know how to compete. If German companies want to survive they need to do that, period. Calling any country poor or rich doesn’t serve any one. Just shows their own inefficiency and in capability. There are western countries minting money out of India.

      • Andrej Reply
        October 6, 2020 at 4:36 am

        I won’t check this now, but your post obviously lacks competence in comparing brands like Kia oder Honda to BMW, Mercedes or even VW.
        Germany brands are dominating the premium market as they are premium brands, You can’t compare those to low budget brands like Kia.

        Disclaimer:
        I might be biased as I’m driving an Audi A6.

  2. Hrag Khantrouni Reply
    October 4, 2020 at 8:52 am

    Lufthansa is a selfish company only looking for their own needs and profits. That’s the reason why they behave that way. They even have such a behavior against their own employees and flight students.

  3. Umesh G Kilnagar Reply
    October 4, 2020 at 5:55 pm

    Jackson Henderson, VW should first learn business ethics and stop cheating on the emission readings
    Exit India and learn good ethics instead of bitching on so called european innovation- probably in cheating on emission readings

    • Inferior Germany Reply
      October 5, 2020 at 1:25 am

      Lufthansa is a drowning boat with a huge debt on its head . I won’t find it a suprise if they crash out on their crappy service.

  4. VJ Reply
    October 4, 2020 at 6:29 pm

    Its ME3 that stands to gain the most and not BA/VS. I would expect most of the international travel to/from India post covid to be dominated by Emirates / Qatar replacing the marketshare lost by the EU3.

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      October 4, 2020 at 9:15 pm

      Longterm yes, shorterm EK and QR are not operating to India.

    • Mazo Reply
      October 4, 2020 at 10:19 pm

      India does NOT allow HUB operations . Thats the point of air bubbles that the flights be direct.
      Amd the only reason AI is flying just 5-6 flights a week to Germany is because there are hardly any passengers flying. Lufthansa is flying commercial flights empty but loaded with cargo and thus covering the costs.

  5. B R IYER Reply
    October 4, 2020 at 7:50 pm

    Lufthansa drags refund endlessly and has no great service quality. Should have been kicked off much before.

    • Mazo Reply
      October 4, 2020 at 10:23 pm

      If the Covid situation in India is so BAD, why is Germany sending 20 flights / week to India when AI which is 1/10th the fare sees at best 50% capacity for the 5 flights it flies?? Clearly something else is afoot at Lufthansa and their Air cargo Hubs are using Covid to gain a competitive advantage which contravenes the whole point of having air bubbles.
      As far as Indian nationals or Business is concerned, flying Air France is no different from flying Lufthansa from EU to India.

  6. Sahil Singh Reply
    October 5, 2020 at 12:08 am

    Let me remind you that India is the largest market for your products. If India start boycotting German products then you will lose a great potential market. Germany has lesser population than Indian states. You can produce goods but you will have nowhere to sell it. So just keep the hole in your mouth shut!!!!

    • Andrej Tippner Reply
      October 6, 2020 at 4:26 am

      Germany is the 6th most important trading partner for India:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_largest_trading_partners_of_India

      India is the 23rd most important trading partner for Germany:
      https://www.destatis.de/EN/Themes/Economy/Foreign-Trade/Tables/order-rank-germany-trading-partners.pdf?__blob=publicationFile

      Get your facts straight. Even Belgium is much more important to Germany than India.

  7. Andrej Reply
    October 6, 2020 at 4:20 am

    So cute how all the nationalist Indians come out of their caves claiming that India is so strong and powerful and other countries like Germany need India so much…
    Modi did well in creating such a delusional narrative.

    Let’s face reality. India is not China; you could have assumed that like 20 years ago, but now it’s pretty clear that India will remain dirty, backward, and poor for the foreseeable future.
    (sadly, as I want to visit India so badly)

  8. Nate Nate Reply
    October 6, 2020 at 12:18 pm

    neither Air India nor Lufthansa are offering flights between Germany and Europe????

  9. Serene Reply
    October 11, 2020 at 9:50 pm

    Matthew – I am not sure this statement is based on facts – “India is currently the world’s worst COVID-19 hotspot” . India is reporting about 76k+ daily cases (curve is downwards) and Germany is reporting 4.5k new cases (increasing). They both average about 5.4 new cases per 100k population based on the highest number reported in the last week. It is worth mentioning that UK, Spain, Belgium, France are averaging much more than that in new cases (curving upwards) and residents from there can travel to Germany. If you are looking at real numbers, I am not sure comparing absolute numbers in the US or India with Germany is pertinent.
    India and Germany should hold talks to sort our any disagreements in the travel bubble arrangements instead of trying hold the Airlines as hostage no doubt but ….

    One disagreement can’t make me stop reading your blog though. Keep writing.

  10. Kishan Reply
    March 15, 2021 at 8:40 pm

    Hope by next year Germany can produce its own vaccine as well.

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      March 16, 2021 at 12:16 am

      Well, the Pfizer vaccine is more German than American (BioNTech), but I get what you mean – Germans should produce their own without the assistance of an American company.

  11. Kishan Reply
    March 17, 2021 at 4:35 pm

    Am aware of the German involvement in R&D , what about manufacturing ?

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