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Lufthansa

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Deutsche Lufthansa AG () is the second largest airline in Europe in terms of overall passengers carried (after Air France - KLM). 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 German flag carrier and the world's sixth largest airline in terms of overall passengers carried, operating services to 200 destinations in 100 countries. Together with its partners Lufthansa services over 410 destinations. 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 is based in Cologne. Its main base and primary traffic hub is at Frankfurt International Airport in Frankfurt am Main with a second hub at Munich International Airport.

Lufthansa is a founding member of Star Alliance, the largest airline alliance. Star Alliance was formed in 1997 together with Thai Airways, United Airlines, Air Canada and Scandinavian Airline Systems. Star Alliance has now 19 member airlines and 3 regional members. The Lufthansa Group operates more than 400 aircraft and employs nearly 100,000 people worldwide. In 2007, 56,4 million passengers flew with Lufthansa.

History

The company was founded on 6 January 1926 in Berlin, following a merger between "Deutsche Aero Lloyd" (DAL) and "Junkers Luftverkehr". The company's original name was Deutsche Luft Hansa Aktiengesellschaft. Lufthansa in one word has been used since 1933. As seen in the documentary, Triumph of the Will, Lufthansa was always the favorite air carrier of Adolf Hitler and, later, was the official airline of the Nazi party (NSDAP). 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. 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 operating. 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).
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 troubled Spanish flag carrier IBERIA.

Subsidiaries

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


  • SunExpress, Airline based in Antalya, Turkey; 50% owned by Lufthansa (50% Turkish Airlines)
    • 

  •  Swiss International Air Lines, an airline based in Zurich, Switzerland owned by Lufthansa
    • 

  •  Lufthansa Cargo, flight logistics company
    • 

  •  Lufthansa Technik, aircraft maintenance providers
    • 

  •  Lufthansa Systems, largest European aviation IT provider
    • 

  •  Lufthansa Regional, a brand operated by an alliance of several small regional airlines, including Lufthansa CityLine
    • 

  •  Lufthansa CityLine, a regional carrier, wholly owned by Lufthansa
    • 

  •  Air Dolomiti, an airline based in Trieste, Italy
    • 

  •  Delvag, an insurance company specializing in air transport
    • 

  •  LSG Sky Chefs, the world's largest airline caterer, which accounts for one third of the world's airline meals
    • 

  •  Lufthansa Flight Training, a provider of flight crew training services to various airlines and the main training arm for the Airline's own pilots
    • 

  •  Condor, a charter carrier, of which Lufthansa holds 24.9%
    • 

  •  Lufthansa holds 13% of  Luxair.
    • 

  •  49% of Eurowings, but full control, a regional carrier wholly owning Germanwings, a low-cost subsidiary operating short-haul point-to-point flights from a number of bases in Germany
    • 

  •  30%, minus 1 share, of BMI, a UK airline
    • 

  •  Lufthansa has 19% of stake in JetBlue.
    • 

  •  Lufthansa Commercial Holding, containing over 400 service and finance companies of which Lufthansa holds shares
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.

 Destinations 


 Fleet 

Lufthansa and Luthansa Cityline (other subsidaries are not included) operates the following aircraft as of October 2007:





 Lufthansa Fleet


Aircraft
Total
Passengers 
 (First/Business*/Economy)
Routes
Notes 

Airbus A300-600R
14
280 Business/Economy on Flights in Europe, 217 Business/Economy on Longer Flights, as to Pakistan or North Africa
Frankfurt into Germany, Europe, Africa and Middle East



Airbus A319-100
19 
 (23 orders)
132* 
Frankfurt and Munich into Germany, Europe, North Africa



Airbus A320-200
36 
 (25 orders)
156*
Frankfurt and Munich into Germany, Europe



Airbus A321-100/200
27 
 (14 orders)
190*
Frankfurt and Munich into Germany, Europe



Airbus A330-300
10 
 (5 orders)
221 (8/48/165)
Frankfurt and Munich into North America, Middle East and Asia, also used on several flights Frankfurt-Munich



Airbus A340-300
32
266 (44/222) 
 221 (8/48/165) 
Frankfurt and Munich into North America, South America, Middle East and Asia



Airbus A340-600
17 
 (7 orders)
345 (66/279) 
 399 (8/44/347) 
 306  (8/60/238)
Frankfurt and Munich into North America, Asia, also used on several flights Frankfurt-Munich



Airbus A380-800
(15 orders) 
 (10 options)
555 
Probably Frankurt into North America, Asia
Entry into service: 2009 

Avro RJ85
18
93*
Munich into Germany, Europe
Operated by Cityline 

Boeing 737-300
33
127*
Frankfurt into Germany, Europe



Boeing 737-500
30
111*
Frankfurt into Germany, Europe and North Africa



Boeing 747-400
30
330 (16/80/234) 
 390 (16/64/310)
Frankfurt into North America, Middle East and Asia



Boeing 747-8
(20 orders) 
 (20 options)
slightly more than 400 seats
Probably Frankfurt into Middle  East, Asia
Launch customer 
 Entry into service: 2010 

Bombardier CRJ-100/200
26
50*
Munich and Frankfurt into Germany, Europe
Operated by Cityline 

Bombardier CRJ-700
20
70*
Munich and Frankfurt into Germany, Europe
Operated by Cityline 

Bombardier CRJ-900
12 
 (15 orders)
84*
Munich into Germany, Europe
Operated by Cityline 

Embraer 190
(30 orders)

Munich into 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 November 2007, the average age of the Lufthansa fleet (including Cityline and Cargo) was 8.4 years. 
In winter 2007, Lufthansa has begun fitting on-demand flight entertainment in all economy class seats of its long-haul aircraft..  

Lufthansa Cityline
The fleet of Lufthansa Cityline consists of:


Lufthansa Cargo
The fleet of Lufthansa Cargo consists of:



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

Livery

Lufthansa's livery is a Eurowhite scheme, composed of primarily white with blue and yellow/orange accents.
A bare metal livery was proposed during the 1980s, also a yellow tail-belly-engines with silver titles in the late 1980s (only one 737 and one A310 ever carried this livery).

Accidents and incidents
See also
References


External links







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Last updated on Thursday March 13, 2008 at 13:58:30 PDT (GMT -0700)
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