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Lufthansa (Germany)

"Deutsche Lufthansa" redirects here. For the East German airline, see Interflug.
Lufthansa
IATA
LH		 ICAO
DLH		 Callsign
LUFTHANSA
Founded 1926 (as Deutsche Luft Hansa Aktiengesellschaft), refounded 1954
Hubs
Focus cities
Frequent flyer program Miles & More
Member lounge HON / Senator Lounge
Alliance Star Alliance
Fleet size 319 (+ 145 orders + 30 options); Lufthansa AG including subsidiaries: 529
Destinations 209 in 81 countries (by June 2008)
Company slogan There's no better way to fly.
Headquarters Cologne, Germany
Key people Jürgen Weber (Head of Supervisory Board and former CEO), Wolfgang Mayrhuber(CEO), Stefan Lauer (), Stephan Gemkow (CFO)
Website: http://www.lufthansa.de/

Deutsche Lufthansa AG (ISIN: DE0008232125) (pronounced [dt lfthanza]) is the largest airline in Europe in terms of overall passengers carried (second is Air France  KLM), and the flag carrier of Germany. The name of the company is derived from Luft (the German word for "air"), and Hansa (after Hanseatic League, the powerful medieval trading group).

The airline is the world's fifth largest airline in terms of overall passengers carried, operating services to 209 destinations in 81 countries. Together with its partners Lufthansa services over 410 destinations.[1] It has the second-largest passenger airline fleet in the world, when combined with Lufthansa CityLine, Air Dolomiti, Eurowings, Germanwings, Augsburg Airways, Contact Air, and SWISS, operating 529 aircraft.

Lufthansa corporate headquarters is in Cologne, whereas its main base and primary traffic hub is at Frankfurt International Airport in Frankfurt am Main with a second hub at Munich International Airport.[1]

Lufthansa is a founding member of Star Alliance, the world's largest airline alliance. Star Alliance was formed in 1997 together with Thai Airways, United Airlines, Air Canada and Scandinavian Airlines System. Star Alliance has now 20 member airlines and 3 regional members. The Lufthansa Group operates more than 400 aircraft and employs 105,261 people worldwide. In 2007, 83,1 million passengers flew with Lufthansa including all subsidiaries.

Contents

History

The company was founded on 6 January 1926 in Berlin, following a merger between "Deutsche Aero Lloyd" (DAL) and "Junkers Luftverkehr".[2] The company's original name was Deutsche Luft Hansa Aktiengesellschaft. Lufthansa in one word has been used since 1933. On December 9, 1927, Deutsche Luft Hansa, on behalf of the German government, established an agreement with the Spanish government authorizing an air service between the two countries. This included a capital investment to establish an air company that would eventually become Iberia.

In the years prior to World War II, the company pioneered routes to the Far East and across the North Atlantic and the South Atlantic, using a large fleet of mostly Dornier, Junkers, Heinkel, Focke-Wulf and other German-designed aircraft. After the outbreak of war in 1939, Lufthansa was only able to maintain service to neutral countries. Early in the war, along with the Italian Transcontinental Airline (Linee Aeree Transcontinentali Italiane, or LATI), the company competed vigorously in South America.[3] However, all service was suspended by Lufthansa following Germany's defeat in 1945.

Lufthansa was recreated on 6 January 1953 as Aktiengesellschaft für Luftverkehrsbedarf (Luftag) and was renamed Deutsche Lufthansa Aktiengesellschaft on August 6, 1954. The "new" Lufthansa of 1953 is not the legal successor of the Lufthansa founded in 1926 and which existed during and before World War II. On 1 April 1955 Lufthansa resumed scheduled service within Germany. International operations started on 15 May 1955, with flights to points in Europe, followed by service to New York on 8 June using Lockheed Super Constellations. South Atlantic routes were resumed in August 1956.

East Germany attempted to establish its own airline in the 1950s using the Lufthansa name, but this resulted in a dispute with West Germany, where the airline was already in operation. East Germany renamed its national airline to Interflug, which ceased operations in 1991. Lufthansa was banned from flying into West Berlin until the demise of the communist regime.

In 1958, Lufthansa placed an order for four Boeing 707s, used to start jet services from Frankfurt to New York in March of 1960. Boeing 720s were later bought to back up the 707 fleet. In February of 1961, Far East routes were extended beyond Bangkok, Thailand to Hong Kong and Tokyo. The cities of Lagos, Nigeria and Johannesburg, South Africa were added in 1962.

Lufthansa introduced the Boeing 727 into service in 1964 and in May of that same year they began the Polar route from Frankfurt to Tokyo. In February of 1965, the company placed an order for twenty-one Boeing 737 medium-haul jets, which were introduced into service in 1968.

Lufthansa was the first customer to purchase and also bought the largest number of Boeing 737 aircraft, and was one of only four buyers of the new 737-100s (the others were NASA, Malaysia-Singapore Airlines and Avianca  while the NASA airframe was technically the first constructed, it was the last delivered and originally intended for delivery to Lufthansa). In doing so, Lufthansa became the first foreign launch customer for a Boeing commercial plane.

The beginning of the wide-body era for Lufthansa was marked with the inaugural Boeing 747 flight on April 26, 1970. In 1971 Lufthansa began service to South America. In 1979, Lufthansa and Swissair were launch customers for the advanced new Airbus A310, with an order for twenty-five aircraft.

The company's major fleet renovation and modernization programme for the 1990s began on June 29, 1985 with an order for fifteen Airbus A320s and seven Airbus A300-600s. Ten Boeing 737-300s were ordered a few days later. All of the aircraft were delivered between 1987 and 1992. Lufthansa also bought Airbus A321, Airbus A340 and the Boeing 747-400.

Lufthansa adopted a new corporate identity in 1988. The fleet was given a new livery while cabins, city offices and airport lounges were redesigned.

On 28 October 1990, 25 days after reunification, Berlin became a Lufthansa destination again. On 18 May 1997 Lufthansa, Air Canada, Scandinavian Airlines, Thai Airways and United Airlines formed the Star Alliance, the world's first multilateral airline alliance.

In 2000 Air One became partner airline of Lufthansa and nearly all Air One flights are code-shared with Lufthansa. In June 2003, Lufthansa opened Terminal 2 at Munich's Franz Josef Strauß International Airport to relieve its main hub, Frankfurt, which was suffering from capacity constraints. It is one of the first terminals in Europe partially owned by an airline.

On 17 May 2004, Lufthansa became the launch customer for the Connexion by Boeing in-flight online connectivity service.

On 22 March 2005 SWISS merged with Lufthansa Airlines. The merger included the provision that the majority shareholders (the Swiss government and large Swiss companies) be offered payment if Lufthansa's share price outperforms an airline index during the years following the merger. The two companies will continue to be run separately.

On 6 December 2006, Lufthansa placed an order for 20 Boeing 747-8 airliners, becoming the launch customer of the type.

Lufthansa is owned by private investors (88.52%), MGL Gesellschaft für Luftverkehrswerte (10.05%), Deutsche Postbank (1.03%) and Deutsche Bank (0.4%) and has 37,042 employees (at March 2007).[1]

On December 14th Lufthansa and American low-cost airline Jetblue announced the beginning of a partnership initiated through the 19% stake purchase in Jetblue shares by Lufthansa. This is the first major ownership investment by a European carrier in an American carrier since the EU-US openskies agreement was announced last year and could trigger further investment by European airlines in the troubled US airline industry.

Lufthansa is currently looking into further consolidation of the European aviation sector by considering the purchase of the Polish government's majority stake in Polish flag carrier LOT while also keeping an option on bidding for the Spanish flag carrier Iberia.

Subsidiaries

In addition to its main operation, Lufthansa has subsidiaries. The most important are:

History of the brand

The Lufthansa logo, an encircled crane in flight, was created in 1918. It was part of the livery of the first German airline, Deutsche Luftreederei GmbH (DLR), which began air service on 5 February 1919. The stylised crane was designed by Professor Otto Firle. In 1926 Lufthansa adopted this symbol from Aero Lloyd AG, which merged with DLR in 1923. The original creator of the name Lufthansa is believed to be F.A. Fischer von Puturzyn. In 1925 he published a book entitled "Luft-Hansa" which examined the options open to aviation policymakers at the time. Luft Hansa was the name given to the new airline which resulted from the merger of Junkers Luftverkehr AG and Deutscher Aero Lloyd[2].

Destinations

Further information: Lufthansa destinations

Fleet

Lufthansa and Luthansa Cityline (other subsidiaries are not included) operates the following aircraft as of April 2008:[5]

Lufthansa Fleet
Aircraft Total Passengers
(First/Business*/Economy)		 Routes Notes
Airbus A300-600R 14 280* Germany, Europe, Africa and Middle East
Airbus A319-100 20
(11 orders)		 126* Germany, Europe, North Africa
Airbus A320-200 36
(14 orders)
(30 options)
For the entire A320 Family		 150* Germany, Europe
Airbus A321-100/200 31
(30 orders)		 182* Germany, Europe Largest operator of the Airbus A321
Airbus A330-300 14
(3 orders)		 221 (8/48/165) Frankfurt and Munich into North America, Africa,
Middle East and Asia, also used on several flights Frankfurt-Munich
Airbus A340-300 28 247 (8/42/197) North America, Africa, South America, Middle East and Asia Largest operator of the Airbus A340-300
Airbus A340-600 20
(4 orders)		 306 (8/60/238) Frankfurt and Munich into North America, Asia,
also used on several flights Frankfurt-Munich		 Largest operator of the Airbus A340-600
Airbus A380-800 (15 orders)
(10 options)		 555 Probably Frankurt into North America, Asia Entry into service: 2009
Avro RJ85 18 93* Germany, Europe Operated by Cityline
Boeing 737-300 33 127* Germany, Europe Exit from service: 2012
Replacement aircraft: Airbus A320 Family
Boeing 737-500 30 111* Germany, Europe and North Africa Exit from service: 2009
Replacement aircraft: Airbus A320 Family
Boeing 747-400 30 344 (16/66/270) Frankfurt into North America, Middle East and Asia
Boeing 747-8 (20 orders)
(20 options)		 Probably Frankfurt into Middle East, Asia Launch customer
Entry into service: 2010
Bombardier CRJ-100/200 26 50* Germany, Europe Operated by Cityline
Bombardier CRJ-700 22 70* Germany, Europe Operated by Cityline
Bombardier CRJ-900 12
(15 orders)		 84* Germany, Europe Operated by Cityline
Embraer 190 (30 orders) Germany, Europe Entry into service: 2008

*First Class is offered aboard some international flights.
*Short haul aircraft base Business Class seating amounts by demand.

As of March 2008, the average age of the Lufthansa fleet was 12.8 years.

Lufthansa Cityline

The Lufthansa Cityline fleet consists of the following aircraft:

Lufthansa Cargo

The Lufthansa Cargo fleet consists of the following aircraft:

The Lufthansa group holds the third biggest fleet of aircraft in the world and is the largest non-American aircraft operator.

Lufthansa's Vintage Aircraft Restoration

Because Lufthansa has been consistently profitable, the company has been able to fund the restoration of its antique passenger planes. Decades ago, many airlines maintained a few examples of their antiques for marketing and public relations purposes, but years of losses forced them to abandon this activity, leaving it to luxury goods makers such as Breitling, or caffeine drink purveyor Red Bull, to restore aircraft as flying billboards.

Lufthansa Technik, the airline's maintenance arm, restored a Junkers JU-52 originally built in 1936, to airworthiness; this aircraft was a Lufthansa workhorse on the 10-hour Berlin to Rome route, across the Alps, in the 1930s. Lufthansa is now restoring a Lockheed Super Constellation,using parts from three such aircraft bought at auction. Lufthansa's Super Constellation "Starliners" used to serve routes such as Hamburg-Madrid-Dakar-Caracas-Santiago. Lufthansa Technik recruits retired employees and volunteers for skilled labor.[6][7]Lufthansa sells air buffs rides on the restored airplanes. (See also List of airworthy Ju 52)

Cabin

All Lufthansa long haul First and Business Class have personal televisions. All Lufthansa Airbus A330-300 and A340-600 aircraft are equipped with personal Audio-Video-On-Demand (AVOD) screens in Economy Class. Lufthansa is currently fitting personal AVOD screens in the Economy seats of its remaining long haul aircraft.[8]

Lufthansa does not offer in-flight entertainment on its short haul aircraft.

Codeshare agreements

Lufthansa has codeshare agreements with the following airlines:[9]

Accidents and incidents

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c "Directory: World Airlines", Flight International, 2007-04-03, p. 107. 
  2. ^ a b Lufthansa Chronicle
  3. ^ "Sedta Cuts Rates" (27 January 1941). Time Magazine. Retrieved on 2007-09-14. 
  4. ^ http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/primenewswire/133023.htm
  5. ^ Lufthansa board magazine
  6. ^ Lufthansa's Labor of Love: Restoring Some Really Old Junkers, Wall Street Journal, June 16, 2008
  7. ^ Engineering Veteran Plays a Vital Role in Plane's Rebirth
  8. ^ Lufthansa To Offer Economy Class AVOD (Flight Global: August 15, 2007)
  9. ^ Lufthansa Codeshare Agreements
  10. ^ JACDEC's JACDEC's Airliner Safety Statistics: Airlines. JACDEC (May 17, 2007).
  11. ^ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=524615 Lufthansa jet 'within split second of crashing' after wingtip hits runway in freak winds

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Lufthansa



v  d  e
Members of Star Alliance
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Airlines of Germany
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Members of the Association of European Airlines
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DAX companies of Germany

Coordinates: 50°5615N 6°5811E / 50.9375, 6.96972

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