The clearance for all flights from Frankfurt has been withdrawn by Germany, officials said. (File)
New Delhi:
Air India has canceled the 12 flights between Frankfurt and India until Oct. 14, after Germany withdrew permission to operate them, senior government officials said Thursday.
Two days ago, Lufthansa said it had to cancel all “scheduled flights” between India and Germany from September 30 to October 20 due to an “unexpected rejection” of its flight schedule by Indian authorities.
Government officials said on Thursday that the airline had canceled 10 Delhi-Frankfurt flights and two Bengaluru-Frankfurt flights which were scheduled until October 14.
“The authorization for all flights from Frankfurt until October 14 has been withdrawn by the German authorities,” one of the officials said.
Air India did not respond to the report request.
Lufthansa said on Tuesday it had requested the continuation of the special flights it was allowed to operate until the end of September, but that it would now have to cancel the flights due to the “unexpected rejection”.
The German carrier said it “sincerely urges” Indian authorities to work with the German government to establish a temporary travel agreement between the two countries.
However, India’s aviation regulator DGCA said on Tuesday that restrictions were in place for Indian nationals wishing to travel to Germany, which placed Indian carriers at a significant disadvantage, resulting in an unfair distribution of traffic in favor of Lufthansa.
“Compared to Indian carriers operating 3-4 flights per week, Lufthansa operated 20 flights per week. Despite this disparity, we offered to release 7 flights per week for Lufthansa, which was not accepted by them. negotiations are continuing, ”he noted.
Scheduled international passenger flights have been suspended in India since March 23 due to the coronavirus lockdown. However, special flights have been authorized under “air bubble” deals India has with 16 countries, including Germany.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
