Lufthansa CEO says no plans to sell IT arm

MUMBAI: German carrier Lufthansa has said it has no plans to sell its IT arm Lufthansa Systems, though it has outsourced some part of the job to the tech giant IBM last year.

"We had made a decision last year to outsource IT infrastructure and after a long discussion, we decided on IBM. This does not preclude us from further moves in the future. For the time being, no plans to sell the subsidiary," Lufthansa chief executive Karl Ulrich Garnadt said here on the sidelines of the annual Nasscom summit.

The German carrier had said last year that it was looking for a partner for its IT arm, which employs 1,400 people at multiple locations. Following this global media reports had said that IBM, Hewlett Packard and the French company Atos were keen to partner the German airline's IT arm.

Lufthansa had also announced plans to split Lufthansa Systems into three separate companies -- an infrastructure division, an airline solutions division and an industry solutions division.

Following this, Lufthansa had decided to contract out its infrastructure services to IBM as part of a long-term agreement to create growth opportunities for the business and new prospects for the employees.

Though he ruled out entering the domestic aviation or the aviation infra space, Garnadt appreciated the progress the country made in airport infrastructure.

"I am quite impressed with the development he has seen at the Navi Mumbai airport. New Delhi, Hyderabad and other places have a good way forward in this sector," he said.

Describing the country's aviation sector as very dynamic, the CEO said we see it as same in Europe over the last two decades, with many new entrants, lots of proposals for the customer, and some successful companies, not so successful companies in the fray.