German airline Lufthansa will increase the number of connections from Germany to India, including the addition of daily flights between the cities of Munich and Mumbai, said an official Friday.

"There is tremendous potential here," said Karl Ulrich Garnadt, executive vice president services and human resources for Lufthansa, in the west Indian city of Pune.

Presently Lufthansa has 55 weekly flights to seven Indian cities, which amounts to 25 per cent of all Lufthansa flights to the Asia-Pacific region.

In July, Lufthansa introduced six weekly non-stop flights between Pune and Frankfurt. The German airline is the first to link Pune, the eighth-largest city in India and home to many international IT firms, non-stop to Europe.

India and Germany extended their air traffic agreement in April, allowing the frequency of flights and the number of destinations to increase, according to Garnadt.

In 2009 Air India will join the Star Alliance, of which Lufthansa, one of the world's largest airlines with flights to 192 destinations in 78 countries, is also a member.

Lufthansa's first connection to India started 40 years ago.