With Lufthansa announcing that it will start flight service between Bengaluru and Munich from November 3, two of the three international routes from Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) which were disrupted due to COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 are back on track.
In 2019-20, it was announced with much fanfare that Bengaluru would be connected to three new destinations — Munich, Tokyo, and Seattle.
While the Bengaluru-Tokyo and the Bengaluru-Munich routes were supposed to have their inaugural flights on March 29 and March 31, 2020, respectively, the Bengaluru-Seattle route was scheduled to commence from October 2020.
However, with the COVID-19 outbreak and the subsequent ban imposed by the government, flight services on these routes were stalled.
Japan Airlines, which was scheduled to handle flights on the Bengaluru-Tokyo route, following the restrictions only operated special flights and later under the Air Bubble arrangement, the airline operated regular flights once a week from March 2021.
But from August 2022, it increased the flight frequency to three times a week.
Meanwhile, Lufthansa will be operating three times a week starting November 3.
“The new destination from Munich is Bengaluru, which, in addition to Delhi and Bombay, will be served by an Airbus A350. LH764 departs Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 12.10 p.m. to the southern Indian metropolis. Lufthansa guests will be able to enjoy one of the Lufthansa Group’s most modern and economical long-haul aircraft, the Airbus A350-900,” Lufthansa said in a statement.
While Bengaluru-Tokyo and the Bengaluru-Munich routes are on track, the Bengaluru-Seattle route, which was to be operated by American Airlines, has been delayed.
When announced in early 2020 that it would be connecting the two cities daily, it was the first non-stop flight between Bengaluru and the United States and also touted to meet corporate customers’ demand for travel to Seattle and adjoining areas in the U.S.
However, in January 2021, Air India became the first operator to offer direct non-stop flight between Bengaluru and the United States as it started direct flights from between San Francisco and Bengaluru.
Flight service to Seattle has been delayed due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine as U.S. carriers have stopped flying over Russian airspace.
