Mumbai: Lufthansa German Airlines will introduce its new generation ‘business class’ service on its Airbus 340-300 aircraft to the Indian market from June this year.

Lufthansa held its global sales conference in India for the first time this week, in recognition of a market growing in global importance for the carrier. India’s share in Lufthansa’s Asia Pacific revenues grew in 2003 from 13 per cent to 17 per cent. Addressing a Press Meet in New Delhi today, Thierry Antinori, Lufthansa’s executive vice president marketing and sales and member of the executive board, said despite a difficult year for aviation in 2003, India had continued to shine.

“India will be amongst the first few routes to receive Lufthansa’s brand new business class products, offered on the Airbus 340-300. We are confident that these additional services will further strengthen our commercial and cultural ties with India,” Antinori added

In another first for the Indian market, the flights between New Delhi and Munich will soon feature FlyNet - the on-board broadband internet connectivity in all classes offered for the first time in international civil aviation by Lufthansa.

“With these bold moves, Lufthansa has maintained and strengthened its position as the No. 1 European airline operating in India with 29 scheduled weekly flights between Germany and India,” said Antinori.

Lufthansa’s new business class product was developed over two and a half years of rigorous designing and testing with an investment of 300 million Euros. The new ergonomically-designed business class seat offers 25 per cent more space than before and converts into a two-metre long private bed with massage functions and remote control settings.

These new aircraft will also fly to a brand new terminal. Through its New Delhi-Munich flight service introduced this summer, Lufthansa has also introduced India to its state-of-the-art second hub at Munich, the most modern airport in Europe. Munich is extremely well connected with all major destinations in Europe, all within a two and a half-hour flight-time radius.

Munich Terminal 2 was jointly built by Lufthansa and the Munich airport authorities at a cost of 1.3 billion Euros with Lufthansa contributing 400 million Euros. The 260,000 square metre facility is loaded with high-tech features and designed to take care of future demand. The terminal is for the exclusive use of Lufthansa and its partners including the Star Alliance and needs just 30 minutes transit time between flights — the lowest of any European airport.

Of its 29 scheduled weekly flights, Lufthansa flies daily - New Delhi-Frankfurt; three times weekly - New Delhi-Munich; daily - Mumbai-Frankfurt; daily- Chennai-Frankfurt and five times weekly between Bangalore-Frankfurt (three scheduled and two seasonal flights).