Lufthansa
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| Lufthansa | ||
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| IATA LH |
ICAO DLH |
Callsign Lufthansa |
| Founded | 1926 (as Deutsche Luft Hansa Aktiengesellschaft), refounded 1954 | |
| Hubs | Frankfurt International Airport Franz Josef Strauß Int'l Airport |
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| Focus cities / secondary hubs | Düsseldorf International Airport Hamburg International Airport Zürich Airport |
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| Frequent flyer program | Miles & More | |
| Member lounge | HON / Senator Lounge | |
| Alliance | Star Alliance | |
| Fleet size | 238 ( + 82 Orders ) | |
| Destinations | 188 | |
| Parent company | Deutsche Lufthansa AG | |
| 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 (pronounced [dɔɪtʃə ˈlʊftˌhanza]) is the largest German airline, and the second-largest in Europe (behind Air France-KLM, but before British Airways). The name of the company is derived from Luft (the German word for "air"), and Hansa (after Hanseatic League, the powerful medieval trading group).
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. It was formed in 1997 and now has 18 member airlines. The Lufthansa Group operates more than 400 aircraft and employs nearly 100,000 people worldwide. In 2005, 51.3 million passengers flew with Lufthansa. [citation needed]
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[edit] History
[citation needed] 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 full name was Deutsche Luft Hansa Aktiengesellschaft, Lufthansa in one word was used since 1933. On December 9, 1927, Deutsche Luft Hansa on behalf of German government, established a general agreement with the Spanish government authorizing an air service between both countries. This included an initial capital investment to establish an air company that would eventually become Iberia.
In the years prior to World War II, the company 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 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 Aktiengesellschaft für Luftverkehrsbedarf (Luftag) and was renamed to Deutsche Lufthansa Aktiengesellschaft on August 6, 1954.
On 1 April 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 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, and the new planes would inaugurate 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 later 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 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 modernisation 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's fleet was further enhanced with the acquisition of the Airbus A321, Airbus A340 and the Boeing 747-400.
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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, just 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 October Varig became a member.
In June 2003, Lufthansa opened a new terminal, 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 consolidated 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 747-8I airliners, becoming the launch customer of the type.
[edit] Subsidaries
In addition to its main operation, Lufthansa has numerous 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
- 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
[edit] 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. [citation needed]
[edit] Destinations
- Further information: Lufthansa destinations
[edit] Fleet
Lufthansa operates the following aircraft as of November 2006:
| Type | Total | Passengers (First/Business*/Economy) |
Routes | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Airbus A300 | 11 | |||
| Airbus A300-600R | 2 | 280* | ||
| Airbus A319CJ | 2 | |||
| Airbus A319 | 18 (23 Orders) |
132* | ||
| Airbus A320 | 36 (15 Orders) |
156* | ||
| Airbus A321 | 26 (15 Orders) |
190* | ||
| Airbus A330-300 | 10 (5 Orders) |
221 (8/48/165) | ||
| Airbus A340-300 | 28 | A:266 (44/222) B:221 (8/48/165) C:247 (8/42/197) |
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| Airbus A340-600 [1] | 13 (14 Orders) |
A:345 (66/279) B:306 (8/60/238) |
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| Airbus A380-800 | (15 Orders) | Entry into service: 2009 | ||
| Boeing 737-300 | 33 | A: 123* B: 126* |
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| Boeing 737-500 | 29 | 123* | ||
| Boeing 747-400 | 30 | A:330 (16/80/234) B:390 (16/64/310) |
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| Boeing 747-8 [2] | (20 Orders) | Launch Customer Entry into service: 2010 |
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| Boeing Business Jet | 1 | |||
| Bombardier CRJ-900 | (12 Orders) |
*First Class is offered aboard Select International Flights.
*Short Haul aircraft base Business Class seating amounts by demand.
In March 2006, the Lufthansa fleet average age was 10.1 years. For the fleets of Lufthansa Cargo, Air Dolomiti, Augsburg Airways, Contact Air, Eurowings and Lufthansa CityLine see the corresponding Wikipedia pages.
[edit] Orders
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. They are likely to be used on services to Asia, Canada and the USA [1].
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. [2]
Lufthansa has expressed interest in the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350. They are also very interested in the 747-8 passenger and freighter version. An order for 20 747-8Is was placed on December 6th, 2006 with further options for 20 planes.
[edit] 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 ( only 1 737 and 1 A310 ever carried this livery).
[edit] Incidents and accidents
- A Lockheed Super Constellation crashed in Brazil on January 11, 1959.[3]
- Flight 5, on January 29, 1966, was a Convair CV-440 which crashed at Bremen, Germany during low-visibility conditions.[4]
- Flight 540, on November 20, 1974, was the first ever crash of a Boeing 747.
- Flight 181, on October 13, 1977, was a Boeing 737 named "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 stormed the aircraft in Mogadishu, Somalia.
- Flight 2904, on September 14, 1993, was an Airbus A320 which crashed after the flight control systems did not detect that the aircraft had been landing. In essence, the pilot landed the aircraft "too perfectly" for the computer to notice.[5]
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Lufthansa
- Lufthansa USA
- Lufthansa Fleet
- Lufthansa Fleet Age
- Lufthansa Passenger Opinions
- Lufthansa Company Profile (Yahoo)
[edit] References
- ^ Airliner World, March 2005
- ^ Lufthansa 2005 Annual Report
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