In a significant move to strengthen air travel between India and Europe, Air India and the Lufthansa Group have signed a landmark Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish a framework for a future joint business agreement.

The agreement brings together Air India and Lufthansa Group’s airlines and subsidiaries, including Air India Express, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, ITA Airways, Lufthansa, and Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS), among others.

Both airline groups are already members of the Star Alliance and currently operate codeshare flights. This new MoU aims to take that partnership further by exploring ways to improve connectivity between India and key European markets. The goal is to provide passengers with smoother travel, better schedules, and more seamless connections on a single ticket across some of the world’s busiest routes.

The MoU was signed by Air India’s Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Campbell Wilson and Lufthansa Group’s Chairman and CEO Carsten Spohr. The agreement comes at a time when India and the European Union have concluded a landmark Free Trade Agreement, opening new economic opportunities between the two regions.

Subject to regulatory and anti-trust approvals, the airlines plan to work together in several areas. These include coordinated route planning and flight schedules to make travel more convenient, joint sales and marketing initiatives, and collaboration on improving the overall customer experience. The two groups may also coordinate frequent flyer programmes, IT systems, quality standards, and other service-related aspects to make journeys more comfortable and efficient for passengers.

Initially, the partnership will focus on increasing passenger traffic between India and Lufthansa Group’s main European markets like Germany, Austria, Belgium, Italy and Switzerland. In the future, the cooperation could expand to cover the rest of Europe and the Indian subcontinent. The exact routes and markets will be finalised once a comprehensive joint business agreement is signed, after receiving necessary approvals.

Carsten Spohr said the agreement signals a new chapter in aviation ties between India and the European Union. He noted that India is one of the fastest-growing aviation markets in the world and said Lufthansa Group is already a leading European airline group among Indian travellers. He added that the partnership would help deepen economic and cultural relations between India and Europe, while offering improved premium travel experiences on more routes. 

Campbell Wilson described the agreement as an important milestone in Air India’s transformation journey. He said the cooperation would help meet the growing trade, business and people-to-people links between India and Europe. As Air India modernises its fleet and upgrades its services, the new framework would create greater value for passengers and shareholders of both airline groups.

Currently, Air India and Lufthansa Group airlines codeshare on 145 routes covering 15 Indian cities and 29 European cities across 20 countries. In February 2025, the two groups had already announced an expansion of their codeshare arrangements involving Air India, Lufthansa, SWISS and Austrian Airlines.

India and the European Union together account for nearly a quarter of the world’s GDP. The European Union is India’s largest trading partner in goods, with bilateral trade exceeding €120 billion in 2024.

Since its privatisation in 2022, Air India has significantly expanded its global partnerships. The airline now has 24 codeshare agreements and nearly 100 interline partnerships, offering access to over 800 destinations worldwide.

The Lufthansa Group, meanwhile, is the world’s fourth-largest airline group in terms of revenue and fleet size. It operates five national airlines across Europe, along with Lufthansa Cargo, Lufthansa Technik, and more than 300 subsidiaries and affiliated companies. In 2024, the group carried over 131 million passengers, providing access to one of the largest airline networks in the world.