From November 1 to the end of January 2019, Lufthansa will operate a regularly scheduled Airbus A319 flight between Frankfurt and Pune, India. Due to the aircraft’s limited range, a fuel stop in Baku, Azerbaijan, will be necessary. The Lufthansa flight is the only direct connection from Pune to Europe.
The route was previously operated by a longer range PrivatAir Boeing 737-700BBJ on behalf of Lufthansa, because the airport in Pune doesn’t have a long enough runway for larger widebody aircraft. However, the contract with PrivatAir ended last summer and Lufthansa is now serving the route with its own short-haul aircraft.
According to Lufthansa’s booking system, PrivatAir will resume operating the route from February 1, 2019.
The Airbus A319 is usually operating short haul flights. On the service between Pune and Frankfurt, Lufthansa will offer a block of 3 seats for each Business Class passenger. Nevertheless, the configuration is not comparable to Lufthansa’s Business Class configuration on other long haul flights. Furthermore, because the Airbus A319 doesn’t have an Inflight Entertainment (IFE) system, customers in the Business Class will receive vouchers for downloads on their own devices.
Nick Wenzel founded International Flight Network in 2016. He is the Social Media Manager and an Editor for IFN.news.