Lufthansa Group and Air India have signed a Memorandum of Understanding, launching a new phase of their strategic cooperation between Europe and India and paving the way for a comprehensive Joint Business Agreement. The agreement was formalised by Lufthansa Group CEO Carsten Spohr and Air India CEO Campbell Wilson, establishing a framework for significantly deeper commercial and operational integration between the carriers.
The expanded cooperation comes at a time when a landmark free trade agreement between the European Union and India has been concluded, creating the world’s largest free trade area. The EU is India’s largest trading partner in goods, with bilateral trade currently amounting to approximately €180 billion per year. Together, the two economic powers account for a quarter of the world’s population and a quarter of global GDP, underlining the strategic importance of strengthening air connectivity.
For the Lufthansa Group, India is already the second most important premium long-haul market after the United States. The rapid growth of the Indian aviation sector, driven by an expanding and increasingly affluent middle class, offers substantial opportunities for further expansion. Closer cooperation with Air India, the country’s largest long-haul carrier and a long-standing partner within the Star Alliance, further consolidates Lufthansa’s position as a leading European airline group in the Indian market.
Currently, Lufthansa Group airlines and Air India offer codeshare flights on 146 routes across 22 countries, covering 15 Indian and 27 European destinations. From Frankfurt, Lufthansa serves Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, and Hyderabad, while from Munich it operates to Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore. SWISS connects Zurich with Delhi and Mumbai, and ITA Airways links Rome with Delhi, meaning that the newest member of the Lufthansa Group is also included in the Memorandum of Understanding. Air India complements this network with long-haul services from Delhi to Frankfurt, Zurich, Vienna, and Milan, as well as from Mumbai to Frankfurt.
In its first phase, the Memorandum focuses on expanding and jointly marketing flight offerings between the Lufthansa Group’s home markets — Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, and Italy — and India, with the objective of creating a more seamless and better-connected travel experience. A second phase envisions the inclusion of the remaining EU member states and the wider Indian subcontinent, subject to regulatory and antitrust approvals once the commercial Joint Business Agreement is finalised.
Future cooperation is also set to expand in areas related to the customer journey, including closer coordination of schedules and route networks to reduce transfer times, integration of sales and marketing activities, stronger alignment of frequent flyer programmes, and optimisation of airport processes to enhance passenger comfort.
Lufthansa can look back on more than 60 years of shared history with India, having first landed in Delhi in 1959. A codeshare agreement with Air India has been in place since 2004, and in 2014 the Indian carrier joined the Star Alliance co-founded by Lufthansa. The newly signed Memorandum of Understanding therefore represents both a continuation of a long-standing partnership and a clear signal that a new chapter in EU–India aviation relations is beginning.
