The Lufthansa Group and Air India have signed a memorandum of understanding to create a joint business agreement, the airlines announced Tuesday. The proposed partnership is subject to regulatory and antitrust approvals before it can move forward.
The planned agreement would encompass the airlines’ respective carriers and subsidiaries. These include Air India and Air India Express on one side, and Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, ITA Airways and Swiss on the other.
Lufthansa and Air India already cooperate through a codeshare arrangement and are both members of the Star Alliance network. Under the proposed joint venture, the airlines aim to deepen that collaboration by aligning flight schedules and route networks more closely. The agreement also envisions joint initiatives in sales, marketing and distribution, as well as better coordination of their frequent flyer programs.
Initially, the focus of the joint business would be on services between India and Lufthansa Group’s core European markets, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Italy and Switzerland. The companies indicated that the scope could later be expanded to include additional European Union countries.
The announcement follows an expansion of their codeshare partnership last February, when Austrian Airlines was added and more routes operated by Air India, Lufthansa and Swiss were incorporated into the agreement.
