() (pronounced
International Phonetic Alphabet ) is the
Largest Airline in Europe. 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
Sixth Largest Airline in the world, operating services to nearly 200 destinations in around 100 countries. Together with its partners Lufthansa services over 410 destinations.
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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 and now has 17 member airlines and 3 regional members. The Lufthansa Group operates more than 400 aircraft and employs nearly 100,000 people worldwide. In
2006 , 53.4 million passengers flew with Lufthansa.
The company was founded on
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 and 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 , and suspended service following Germany's defeat in
1945 .
Lufthansa was recreated on
6 January ,
1953 as (Luftag) and was renamed to '''Deutsche Lufthansa Aktiengesellschaft''' on August 6, 1954. The "new" Lufthansa of 1953 is not the legal successor of the Lufthansa during and before WWII. On
April 1 ,
1955 Lufthansa resumed scheduled service within
Germany . International operations started on
May 15 ,
1955 , with flights to points in
Europe , followed by service to New York on June 8 using
Lockheed Super Constellations .
South Atlantic routes were resumed in August of
1956 .
East Germany attempted to establish its own airline in the
1950 s 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 707 s, used to start jet services from
Frankfurt to New York in March of
1960 .
Boeing 720 s 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 A320 s and seven
Airbus A300-600 s. 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 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 I 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 ).
In addition to its main operation, Lufthansa has numerous subsidiaries. The most important are:
- Swiss International Air Lines , an airline based in Zurich 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 LH holds 24.9%
- Lufthansa holds 13% of Luxair .
- Germanwings , a low-cost subsidiary operating short-haul point-to-point flights from a number of bases in Germany
- Italianwings , a soon to be established low-cost airline based on the Germanwings model
- Lufthansa Commercial Holding, containing over 400 service and finance companies of which Lufthansa holds shares
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.
Lufthansa operates the following aircraft as of May
2007 :
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As of March 2006, the average age of the Lufthansa fleet was 10.1 years.
In winter
2007 , Lufthansa will begin fitting on-demand flight entertainment in all economy class seats of it long-haul aircraft."
Lufthansa to roll-out seat-back IFE in economy " Flight Global, 15/08/07. The airline will be doing a trial before hand to see whether touch-screen or armrest control is preferred.
The fleet of Lufthansa Cityline consists of:
The fleet of
Lufthansa Cargo consists of:
Lufthansa has the biggest Non-American fleet.
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 1 737 and 1 A310 ever carried this livery).
- ''' crashed shortly before landing at Rio De Janeiro, Brazil on a flight from Hamburg, Germany . 36 of 39 people died. {Link without Title}
- ''', crashed on its flight from Frankfurt, Germany to Bremen, Germany during low-visibility conditions. All 46 people on board died. {Link without Title}
- ''', a 747-100 (D-ABYB, named "Hessen") crashed in Nairobi.
- ''' Flight 2904 , an Airbus A320 (D-AIPN, named "Kulmbach"), coming from Frankfurt am Main with 70 people crashed into an earth wall at the end of the runway. The copilot and a passenger died. A series of unfortunate events lead to the crash: heavy rain prior to the landing, strong windshear over the airport, meteorological information provided by the tower to the crew was not accurate, pilot error and computer software imperfections. [http://www.rvs.uni-bielefeld.de/publications/Incidents/DOCS/ComAndRep/Warsaw/warsaw-report.html
Lufthansa is 18th in the international
JACDEC -Safety-Ranking with 0,05 (2006) index points.
- Hull-loss Accidents : 61 with a total of 282 fatalities4
- --- 11 January 1959 - an Lockheed L-1049G Super Constellation enroute from Hamburg, Germany crashed into the beach in Rio De Janeiro while descending in heavy rain. 36 people died, 3 survived.
- --- 28 January 1966 - Lufhansa Flight 005, an Convair CV 440 crashed on landing approach in bad weather and low visibility in Bremen . All 46 passengers and crew on board lost their lives.
- --- 20 November 1974 – Lufthansa Flight 540 , an Boeing 747-130 crashes shortly after take-off in Nairobi . 59 of 157 on board lost their lives. This was the first crash of a Boeing 747.
- --- 26 July 1979 - Lufthansa Cargo Flight 527, an Boeing 707-330C crashed after take-off in Rio De Janeiro , killing 3 crew members.
- --- 14 September 1993 - Lufthansa Flight 2904 , in Warsaw an Airbus A320-211 coming from Frankfurt Am Main with 70 people crashed into an earth wall at the end of the runway. A fire started in the left wing area and penetrated into the passenger cabin. The copilot and a passenger died.
- --- 7 July 1999 - Lufthansa Cargo India Flight 8533, an Boeing 727-200F, crashed after take-off in Kathmandu , killing 5 crew members.
- Hijackings
- --- 13 October 1977 - Lufthansa Flight 181 , was a Boeing 737, named after the Bavarian city " Landshut ". The aircraft was hijacked and the captain was murdered, but all other crew members and all the passengers were freed safely when a German Counter-terrorism Force (GSG 9) stormed the aircraft in Mogadishu , Somalia .
- Other occurrences
- --- 25 March 2007 - Lufthansa Flight 584, (SK3585/UA8910) enroute Frankfurt - Cairo made an emergency landing in Belgrade , Serbia due to smoke coming from one of the onboard cabin systems. 213 passengers and 11 crew were onboard the Airbus A300-600 aircraft with only one passenger needing to be treated for smoke inhalation and breathing difficulties.
