(''Deutsche Lufthansa AG'') is the largest
German airline company, and one of the largest operators in the world. The literal translation from German is "The Air Trade Group". Lufthansa's headquarters is in
Cologne while its main base and primary traffic hub is at
Frankfurt International Airport in
Frankfurt Am Main .
The company has developed a second hub at
Munich 's
Franz Josef Strauß International Airport and since its take over of
SWISS ,
Zurich Airport will become Lufthansa's third main hub.
Lufthansa is a founding member of ''
Star Alliance '', one of the world's major airline alliances. The Lufthansa Group operates more than 300 aircraft and employs nearly 100,000 people world-wide.
In 2005, 51.3 million passengers flew with Lufthansa.
The company was founded in
1926 and headquartered in
Berlin , following a merger between "Deutsche Aero Lloyd" (DAL) and "
Junkers Luftverkehr" on
January 6 of that year. The company's original full name was . The name ''Lufthansa'' derives from ''Luft'' (the
German word for "air") and ''
Hansa '' (the
Hanseatic trade organization that was mainly active in Northern Europe during the
Medieval times).
In the
1950 s
East Germany attempted to establish its own airline using the Lufthansa name, but this resulted in a dispute with
West Germany , where the airline had been already re-established after the
Second World War . East Germany instead called its national airline
Interflug , which ceased operations in
1991 . Lufthansa was banned from flying into
West Berlin until the demise of the communist regime.
Lufthansa was the launch customer of the
Boeing 737 aircraft, and the only buyers of new 737-100s. By doing so, Lufthansa became the first foreign launch customer for a Boeing commercial plane. On
17 May 2004 , Lufthansa became the launch customer for the
Connexion By Boeing in-flight online connectivity service.
In June
2003 Lufthansa opened new Terminal 2 at
Munich 's
Franz Josef Strauss International Airport to relieve its main hub, Frankfurt, which is plagued with capacity constraints. It is one of the first
Terminals in
Europe partially owned by an airline.
On
22 March 2005 SWISS consolidated with Lufthansa Airlines. The deal consists of Lufthansa offering public
Shareholder s the average price over the weeks prior to the announcement. The majority shareholders (the
Swiss Government and large Swiss companies) will be offered payment if Lufthansa's share price outperforms an airline index during the years following the merger. Swiss will continue to be run separately from Lufthansa.
In addition to its mainline operation, Lufthansa has many subsidiaries. The most important are:
- Lufthansa Cargo , the world´s leading flight-logistics-company
- Lufthansa Technik , one of the world's largest aircraft maintenance providers
- Lufthansa Systems , one of the world's leading aviation IT-providers
- Lufthansa Regional , a regional carrier that is an alliance of several small airlines, including Lufthansa CityLine
- Lufthansa CityLine , a regional carrier
- Thomas Cook , a travel services provider
- 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 major provider of flight crew training services to various airlines and the main training arm for the Airline's own pilots
- Condor , a charter carrier and vacation consolidator
The Lufthansa fleet consists of the following aircraft (as per December 2005):
In March 2006, Lufthansa fleet average age is 11.2 years old.
Lufthansa number 8 Airbus
Airbus A330-300 was 4,000th Airbus aircraft built.
Lufthansa has ordered 15
Airbus A380 aircraft. It has a further 10 on option. The first will be delivered before the end of
2007 and they are likely to be used on services to
Asia and the
USA (ref: Airliner World, March 2005).
Lufthansa has also expressed interest in the
Boeing 747-8 passenger and freighter models. Talks with boeing on these aircraft are on-going
Through its Lufthansa
Berlin Stiftung, it operates three classic German aircraft as well:
