Lufthansa
irline=Lufthansa|
logo=Lufthansa Logo.svg|
logo_size=250px|
IATA=LH|
ICAO=DLH|
callsign=Lufthansa|
parent=Deutsche Lufthansa AG|
founded=1926 , refounded 1954|
headquarters=
Cologne,
Germany|
key_people=J?rgen Weber , Wolfgang Mayrhuber, Stefan Lauer , Stephan Gemkow |
hubs=
Frankfurt International AirportFranz Josef Strau? Int'l Airport|
focus_cities=D?sseldorf International Airport
Hamburg International AirportBerlin-TegelZ?rich Airport|
Encyclopedia
Deutsche Lufthansa AG is the largest
German airline, and the second-largest in Europe . The name of the company is derived from
Luft , and
Hansa .
Lufthansa is based in
Cologne. Its main base and primary traffic hub is at
Frankfurt International Airport in
Frankfurt am Main, and the company has developed a second hub at
Munich International Airport. Since its takeover of
Swiss International Air Lines, Zürich Airport will become Lufthansa's third main hub.
Lufthansa is a founding member of
Star Alliance, the largest airline alliance in the world, in which Lufthansa is the second-largest airline after United Airlines. The Lufthansa Group operates more than 400 aircraft and employs nearly 100,000 people world-wide.
In 2005, 51.3 million passengers flew with Lufthansa.
History
Founded in 1926 in
Berlin as "Luftag", following a merger between "Deutsche Aero Lloyd" and "
Junkers Luftverkehr" on January 6 of that year. The company's original full name was
Deutsche Luft Hansa Aktiengesellschaft.
In the years to the outbreak of
World War II developed into one of the world's leading airlines, pioneering 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 able to maintain only services to
neutral countries, but all flying suspended following Germany's defeat in 1945.
In the 1950s
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.
Operations started on May 15th, 1955 to points in
Europe and on June, 8th. to
New York using Lockheed Super Constellations.
South Atlantic routes were resumed in August of 1956
In 1958, Lufthansa placed order for four
Boeing 707, which inaugurated jet services from
Frankfurt to New York in March of 1960. The
Boeing 720 were bought to back up the 707 and in February of 1961,
Far East routes were extended beyond
Bangkok,
Thailand to
Hong Kong and
Tokyo,
Japan. The cities of
Lagos,
Nigeria and
Johannesburg,
South Africa were reached in 1962.
Lufthansa introduced the
Boeing 727 into service in 1964 and in May that same year, Lufthansa introduced Polar route from Frankfurt to Tokyo. In February of 1965 placed an order for twenty-one
Boeing 737 medium-haul jets, who were later introduced into service in 1968
Lufthansa was the launch customer and purchased the largest number of the
Boeing 737 aircraft, and one of only four buyers of new 737-100s although NASA only took one airframe. While the NASA airframe was technically the first constructed it was the last delivered and originally intended for delivery to Lufthansa). By doing so, Lufthansa became the first foreign launch customer for a Boeing commercial plane.
The beginning of the
wide-body era was marked with the inaugural
Boeing 747 flight on April 26th, 1970. In 1971 Lufthansa started the first service to
South AmericaIn 1979, Lufthansa together with Swissair were launch customers for the advanced new
Airbus A310, with an order for twenty-five aircraft.
The major fleet re-equipment and modernisation programme for the
1990s initiated on June 29th, 1985 with the order for fifteen
Airbus A320s and seven
Airbus A300-600s with twenty-five and seven options respectively. Ten
Boeing 737-300s were ordered a few days later. All the aircrafts were delivered between 1987 and 1992. Lufthansa's fleet was further enhanced with the acquisition of the
Airbus A321,
Airbus A340 and the
Boeing 747-400 > |
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In June 2003 Lufthansa opened new Terminal 2 at Munich's Franz Josef Strauß International Airport to relieve its main hub, Frankfurt, which has 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 consolidated with Lufthansa Airlines. The majority shareholders 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.
Other Businesses
In addition to its mainline operation, Lufthansa has the subsidiaries. The most important are:
- Lufthansa Cargo, flight-logistics-company
- Lufthansa Technik, aircraft maintenance providers
- Lufthansa Systems, 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 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
Destinations
Accidents and Incidents
- Flight 540 was the first ever crash of a Boeing 747.
...
, Somalia.
Fleet
Lufthansa operates the following aircraft :
For the fleets of Lufthansa Cargo, Air Dolomiti, Augsburg Airways, Contact Air, Eurowings and Lufthansa CityLine see the corresponding Wikipedia pages.
Orders
In March 2006, the Lufthansa fleet average age was 10.1 years.
Fifty-two new aircraft additions are planned so far up to the end of 2015. The biggest capital expenditure project is the Airbus A380. It is to serve as a flagship for the airline.
Lufthansa has ordered 15 Airbus A380 aircraft and has a further 10 on option. The first will be delivered before the end of 2007. They are likely to be used on services to Asia, Canada and the USA .
Owing to its greatly expanded capacity the A380 will provide growth without having to increase the number of aircraft in use and will simultaneously improve the fleet's efficiency thanks to its expected 20 per cent lower operating costs than conventional long-haul aircraft.
Lufthansa has expressed interest in the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350. They are also very interested in the 747-8 passenger and freighter version. It is possible that Lufthansa could replace its 30 747-400 fleet with the more fuel efficient 747-8.
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 80's, also a yellow tail-belly-engines with silver titles in the late 80's .
Numbers
- Passengers: 51.3 Million
- Cargo: 1,736 Mio. Tonnes
- Employees: 91364
Through its Lufthansa Berlin Stiftung, it operates three classic German aircraft as well:
See also
...
External links
