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Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), commonly shortened to Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. When combined with its subsidiaries, it is the second- largest airline in Europe in terms of passengers carried. Lufthansa is one of the five founding members of Star Alliance, the world's largest airline alliance, formed in 1997. Besides its own services, and owning subsidiary passenger airlines Austrian Airlines, Swiss International Air Lines,
Brussels Airlines Brussels Airlines is the flag carrier and largest airline of Belgium, based and headquartered at Brussels Airport. It operates to over 100 destinations in Europe, North America and Africa and also offers charter services, maintenance and crew ...
, and Eurowings (referred to in English by Lufthansa as its ''Passenger Airline Group''), Deutsche Lufthansa AG owns several aviation-related companies, such as Lufthansa Technik and LSG Sky Chefs, as part of the Lufthansa Group. In total, the group has over 700 aircraft, making it one of the largest airline fleets in the world. Lufthansa's registered office and
corporate headquarters Corporate headquarters is the part of a corporate structure that deals with important tasks such as strategic planning, corporate communications, taxes, law, books of record, marketing, finance, human resources, and information technology. Corpor ...
are in Cologne. The main operations base, called Lufthansa Aviation Center, is at Lufthansa's primary hub at Frankfurt Airport, and its secondary hub is at Munich Airport where a secondary ''Flight Operations Centre'' is maintained. The company was founded as Luftag in 1953 by staff of the former Deutsche Luft Hansa that had been politically connected to the
government of Nazi Germany The government of Nazi Germany was totalitarian, run by the Nazi Party in Germany according to the Führerprinzip through the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler. Nazi Germany began with the fact that the Enabling Act was enacted to give Hitler's gover ...
and dissolved after World War II. Luftag continued the traditional branding of the German flag carrier by acquiring the Luft Hansa name and logo.


History


1950s: Post-war (re-)formation

Lufthansa traces its history to 1926 when Deutsche Luft Hansa A.G. (styled as ''Deutsche Lufthansa'' from 1933 onwards) was formed in Berlin. DLH, as it was known, was Germany's flag carrier until 1945 when all services were terminated following the defeat of Nazi Germany; it has since been demonstrated that Deutsche Luft Hansa relied on the use of forced labor and housed forced laborers on the site of Tempelhof airport. In an effort to create a new national airline, a company called Aktiengesellschaft für Luftverkehrsbedarf (Luftag), was founded in Cologne on 6 January 1953, with many of its staff having worked for the pre-war Lufthansa; this included
Kurt Weigelt Kurt Weigelt (5 June 1884 – 5 August 1968) was a German business manager of Lufthansa and Deutsche Bank, and a Nazi war criminal sentenced to two years in prison for being a supporting member of the SS. From after World War I, Weigelt was in D ...
, a Nazi convicted of war crimes, who served on the board on the new Lufthansa, and Kurt Knipfer, a member of the Nazi party from 1929 who led Luft Hansa from 1933 to 1945. West Germany had not yet been granted sovereignty over its airspace, so it was not known when the new airline could become operational. Nevertheless, in 1953 Luftag placed orders for four
Convair CV-340 The Convair CV-240 is an American airliner that Convair manufactured from 1947 to 1954, initially as a possible replacement for the ubiquitous Douglas DC-3. Featuring a more modern design with cabin pressurization, the 240 series made some inroa ...
s and four Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellations and set up a maintenance base at Hamburg Airport. On 6 August 1954, Luftag acquired the name and logo of the liquidated Deutsche Lufthansa for DM 30,000 (equivalent to € today), thus continuing the tradition of a German flag carrier of that name. On 1 April 1955 Lufthansa won approval to start scheduled domestic flights, linking Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Cologne, and Munich. International flights started on 15 May 1955, to London, Paris, and Madrid, followed by Super Constellation flights to New York City from 1 June of that year, and across the South Atlantic from August 1956. In August 1958 fifteen Lufthansa 1049Gs and 1649s left Germany each week to Canada and the United States, three 1049Gs a week flew to South America, three flew to Tehran and one to Baghdad. In parallel, the airline also initiated a marketing campaign to sell itself and West Germany. The challenges involved encouraging travelers to consider visiting the country in the wake of World War II, as well as offering services to other nations via the Frankfurt airport hub. More specifically, Lufthansa's efforts shaped and reflected the development of a modern form of consumerism and advertising through the sale of air travel. By 1963, the airline, initially limited in its public relations efforts, had become a major purveyor of West Germany's image abroad. The
special status Special or specials may refer to: Policing * Specials, Ulster Special Constabulary, the Northern Ireland police force * Specials, Special Constable, an auxiliary, volunteer, or temporary; police worker or police officer Literature * ''Specia ...
of Berlin meant that Lufthansa was not allowed to fly to either part of Berlin until
German reunification German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...
in 1990. Originally thought to be only a temporary matter (and with intentions to move the airline's headquarters and main base there once the political situation changed), the Division of Germany turned out to be longer than expected, which gradually led to Frankfurt Airport becoming Lufthansa's primary hub. East Germany tried to establish its airline in 1955 using the ''Lufthansa'' name, but this resulted in a legal dispute with West Germany, where Lufthansa was operating. East Germany instead established
Interflug Interflug GmbH (german: Interflug Gesellschaft für internationalen Flugverkehr m.b.H.; ) was the national airline of the German Democratic Republic from 1963 to 1990. Based in East Berlin, it operated scheduled and chartered flights to European ...
as its national airline in 1963, which coincided with the East German Lufthansa being shut down.


1960s: Introduction of jetliners

In 1958 Lufthansa ordered four
Boeing 707 The Boeing 707 is an American, long-range, narrow-body airliner, the first jetliner developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype first flown in 1954, the initial first flew on December 20, ...
s and started jet flights from Frankfurt to New York City in March 1960. Boeing 720Bs were later bought to back up the 707 fleets. In February 1961 Far East routes were extended beyond Bangkok, Thailand, to Hong Kong and Tokyo. Lagos, Nigeria, and Johannesburg, South Africa were added in 1962. Lufthansa introduced the Boeing 727 in 1964 and that May began the Polar route from Frankfurt to Tokyo via Anchorage. In February 1965 the company ordered twenty-one Boeing 737s that went into service in 1968. Lufthansa was the first customer for the Boeing 737 and was one of four buyers of the 737-100s (the others were NASA, Malaysia-Singapore Airlines, and Avianca – while the NASA airframe was the first built, it was the last delivered and originally intended for delivery to Lufthansa). Lufthansa was the first foreign launch customer for a Boeing airliner.


1970s–1980s: The wide-body era

The wide-body era for Lufthansa started with a
Boeing 747 The Boeing 747 is a large, long-range wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2022. After introducing the 707 in October 1958, Pan Am wanted a jet times its size, t ...
flight on 26 April 1970. It was followed by the introduction of the
DC-10-30 The McDonnell Douglas DC-10 is an American trijet wide-body aircraft manufactured by McDonnell Douglas. The DC-10 was intended to succeed the DC-8 for long-range flights. It first flew on August 29, 1970; it was introduced on August 5, 1971, ...
on 12 November 1973, and the first Airbus A300 in 1976. In 1979 Lufthansa and
Swissair Swissair AG/ S.A. (German: Schweizerische Luftverkehr-AG; French: S.A. Suisse pour la Navigation Aérienne) was the national airline of Switzerland between its founding in 1931 and bankruptcy in 2002. It was formed from a merger between Bal ...
became launch customers for the Airbus A310 with an order for twenty-five aircraft. The company's fleet modernization programme for the 1990s began on 29 June 1985, with an order for fifteen Airbus A320s and seven Airbus A300-600s. Ten Boeing 737-300s were ordered a few days later. All were delivered between 1987 and 1992. Lufthansa also bought
Airbus A321 The Airbus A321 is a member of the Airbus A320 family of short to medium range, narrow-body, commercial passenger twin engine jet airliners; it carries 185 to 236 passengers. It has a stretched fuselage which was the first derivative of the ba ...
, Airbus A340, and
Boeing 747-400 The Boeing 747-400 is a large, long-range wide-body airliner produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, an advanced variant of the initial Boeing 747. The "Advanced Series 300" was announced at the September 1984 Farnborough Airshow, targeting ...
aircraft. In 1987 Lufthansa, together with Air France, Iberia, and
Scandinavian Airlines Scandinavian Airlines, more commonly known and styled as SAS, is the flag carrier of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. ''SAS'' is an abbreviation of the company's full name, Scandinavian Airlines System or legally Scandinavian Airlines System Denmark ...
, founded Amadeus, an IT company (also known as a GDS) that would enable travel agencies to sell the founders and other airlines' products from a single system. Lufthansa adopted a new corporate identity in 1988. The fleet was given a new livery, while cabins, city offices, and airport lounges were redesigned.


1990s–2000s: Further expansion

On 28 October 1990, 25 days after reunification, Berlin became a Lufthansa destination again. On 18 May 1997, Lufthansa, Air Canada,
Scandinavian Airlines Scandinavian Airlines, more commonly known and styled as SAS, is the flag carrier of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. ''SAS'' is an abbreviation of the company's full name, Scandinavian Airlines System or legally Scandinavian Airlines System Denmark ...
,
Thai Airways International Thai Airways International Public Company Limited, trading as THAI (, th, บริษัท การบินไทย จำกัด (มหาชน)) is the flag carrier airline of Thailand. Formed in 1961, the airline has its corporate h ...
, and United Airlines formed Star Alliance, the world's first multilateral airline alliance. At the beginning of 1995, Lufthansa made some structural changes aimed at creating independent operating companies of the aviation group, such as Lufthansa Technik, Lufthansa Cargo and
Lufthansa Systems Lufthansa Systems is an information technology service provider for the aviation industry. It has around 2,200 employees in several locations in Germany and offices in 16 other countries. The company is headquartered in Raunheim near Frankfurt. ...
. Three new companies who joined later in the Lufthansa Group were LSG Sky Chefs, Condor and Lufthansa CityLine. In 1999, Lufthansa participated in the German Business Foundation initiative addressing class action lawsuits against German companies for World War II-era misdeeds, including the use of forced labor, by reportedly paying 10s of millions German marks. The same year, Lufthansa commissioned the scholar Lutz Budrass to investigate the use of forced labor by its predecessor company, Deutsche Luft Hansa, during World War II; it declined to publish Dr. Budrass's resulting study for more than a decade. In 2000,
Air One Air One S.p.A. was an Italian low-cost airline which operated as Air One "Smart Carrier". It operated as Alitalia's low-cost carrier subsidiary with operating bases located in Catania–Fontanarossa Airport, Palermo Falcone–Borsellino Airport ...
became a Lufthansa partner airline and nearly all Air One flights were code-shared with Lufthansa until Alitalia purchased Air One. Lufthansa has a good track record for posting profits, even in 2001, after
9/11 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...
, the airline suffered a significant loss in profits but still managed to stay 'in the black'. While many other airlines announced layoffs (typically 20% of their workforce), Lufthansa retained its current workforce. On 6 December 2001, Lufthansa announced an order for 15 Airbus A380 superjumbos with 10 more options, which was confirmed on 20 December. The A380 fleet would be used for long-haul flights from Frankfurt exclusively. In June 2003, Lufthansa opened Terminal 2 at Munich's Franz Josef Strauß 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. In autumn 2003, the implementation of a new sales strategy initiated by then-incumbent Executive Vice President Thierry Antinori to make the company fit for the digital era led to the abolition of commission payments for travel agencies and led to a revolution in the German travel business with many travel agencies disappearing from the market on the one hand, and the rise of new
digital Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Technology and computing Hardware *Digital electronics, electronic circuits which operate using digital signals **Digital camera, which captures and stores digital i ...
distribution platforms on the other hand. On 22 March 2005, Swiss International Air Lines was purchased by Lufthansa's holding company. The acquisition 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 747-8s, becoming the launch customer of the passenger model. The airline is also the second European airline to operate the Airbus A380 (after Air France). The first A380 was delivered on 19 May 2010, while the first 747-8 entered service in 2012. In September 2008, Lufthansa Group announced its intent to purchase a stake in
Brussels Airlines Brussels Airlines is the flag carrier and largest airline of Belgium, based and headquartered at Brussels Airport. It operates to over 100 destinations in Europe, North America and Africa and also offers charter services, maintenance and crew ...
(SN). In June 2009, the EU Commission granted regulatory approval and Lufthansa acquired 45% of SN. In September 2016, Lufthansa announced it would purchase the remainder of Brussels Airlines for €2.6 million euros. The transaction was completed in early January 2017. The decision was partially taken after the Brussels airport bombings of March 2016, which caused SN to lose almost €5 million per day until 3 April. In September 2009, Lufthansa purchased Austrian Airlines with the approval of the European Commission. On 11 June 2010, Airbus A380 service between Frankfurt and Tokyo ( Narita) started.


2010s: Belt-tightening

After a loss of 381 million euros in the first quarter of 2010 and another 13 million loss in the year 2011 due to the economic recession and restructuring costs, Deutsche Lufthansa AG cut 3,500 administrative positions or around 20 percent of the clerical total of 16,800. In 2012, Lufthansa announced a restructuring program called SCORE to improve its operating profit. As a part of the restructuring plan, the company started to transfer all short-haul flights outside its hubs in Frankfurt, Munich, and Düsseldorf to the company's re-branded
low-cost carrier A low-cost carrier or low-cost airline (occasionally referred to as '' no-frills'', ''budget'' or '' discount carrier'' or ''airline'', and abbreviated as ''LCC'') is an airline that is operated with an especially high emphasis on minimizing op ...
Germanwings. In September 2013, Lufthansa Group announced its biggest order, for 59 wide-body aircraft valued more than 14 billion euros at list prices. Earlier in the same year, Lufthansa placed an order for 100 next-generation narrow-body aircraft. The group has had a long-standing dispute with the Vereinigung Cockpit union which has demanded a scheme in which pilots can retire at the age of 55, and 60% of their pay be retained, which Lufthansa insists is no longer affordable. Lufthansa pilots were joined by pilots from the group's budget carrier Germanwings to stage a nationwide strike in support of their demands in April 2014 which lasted three days. The pilots staged a six-hour strike at the end of the summer holidays in September 2014, which caused the cancellation of 200 Lufthansa flights and 100 Germanwings flights. During the course of the
2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...
, part of the fleet was branded "Fanhansa". In November 2014, Lufthansa signed an outsourcing deal worth $1.25 billion with IBM that will see the US company take over the airline's IT infrastructure services division and staff. In June 2015, Lufthansa announced plans to close its small long-haul base at Düsseldorf Airport for economic reasons by October 2015. At the time, the base consisted of two Airbus A340-300s rotating between
Newark Newark most commonly refers to: * Newark, New Jersey, city in the United States * Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey; a major air hub in the New York metropolitan area Newark may also refer to: Places Canada * Niagara-on-the ...
and Chicago. As a result, service to Chicago from Düsseldorf was first made seasonal, suspended for the winter 2015 season, and then canceled altogether. Service to Newark, however, was initially maintained. From the winter 2015 schedule through the end of the winter 2016 schedule, Düsseldorf was served by aircraft which also flew the Munich-Newark route. The Düsseldorf-Newark route ended on 30 November 2018, which was operated with an Airbus A330-300 aircraft. Their base was officially closed in March 2019. On 22 March 2016, Lufthansa ended Boeing 737-500 operations. The airline's last Boeing 737 (a 737-300) was retired on 29 October 2016, after a flight from Milan to Frankfurt. Lufthansa operated the 737 in several variants for almost 50 years, the first aircraft having been delivered on 27 December 1967. On 4 December 2017, Lufthansa became the first European airline to receive the Skytrax 5 star certification. As stated by Skytrax, a key factor in the positive rating was the announcement of a new Business Class cabin and seating that was expected to be introduced in 2020. While this makes Lufthansa the 10th airline to be holding this award, in reality the 5th star was given to a product that was supposed to be introduced two years after the evaluation. In celebration, Lufthansa painted an Airbus A320 and a Boeing 747-8 in the "5 Starhansa" livery. In March 2018, Lufthansa and other airlines like British Airways and American Airlines accepted a request from Beijing to list Taiwan as part of China. In March 2019 Lufthansa ordered 20
Boeing 787-9 The Boeing 787 Dreamliner is an American wide-body jet airliner developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. After dropping its unconventional Sonic Cruiser project, Boeing announced the conventional 7E7 on January 29, 2003, ...
and an additional 20
Airbus A350-900 The Airbus A350 is a long-range, wide-body twin-engine jet airliner developed and produced by Airbus. The first A350 design proposed by Airbus in 2004, in response to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, would have been a development of the A330 wi ...
for its own and the group's fleet replacement and expansion. Also, the airline announced it would sell six A380 aircraft back to Airbus, beginning in 2022.


2020s: COVID-19 pandemic and recovery

On 19 March 2020 Lufthansa cancelled 95 percent of all flights due to a
travel ban A travel ban is one of a variety of mobility restrictions imposed by governments. Bans can be universal or selective. The restrictions can be geographic, imposed by either the originating or destination jurisdiction. They can also be based on indiv ...
because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, the airline incurred losses of 1 million euros per hour by April 2020. While Lufthansa reduced its costs throughout 2020, continuing health risks and travel restrictions still caused hourly losses of approximately 500,000 euros on average at the beginning of 2021. On 14 May, Lufthansa Group announced that it planned to operate 1,800 weekly flights by the end of June. The company's recovery plans involved high-density cargo to replace paying customers. All Lufthansa Group required all passengers to wear a mask while aboard. On 25 June, Deutsche Lufthansa AG shareholders accepted a bailout, consisting of capital measures and the participation of the Economic Stabilisation Fund (WSF) of the
Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (german: Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz, ), abbreviated BMWK (was BMWi), is a cabinet-level ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany. It was previously known as ...
. The measures, which passed after initial opposition by principal shareholder
Heinz Hermann Thiele Heinz Hermann Thiele (2 April 1941 – 23 February 2021) was a German businessman and the chairman of Knorr-Bremse AG, a German automobile brakes manufacturer, and chairman of Vossloh, a German transport technology manufacturer. At the time of ...
, gave the government a 20% stake in the airline. In January 2021, Lufthansa CEO Spohr announced that the entire currently stored Airbus A340-600 fleet will be retired with immediate effect and not return to service anymore. This decision was later overturned with several A340-600 aircraft returning to service in 2021 after several months in storage. In June 2021, Lufthansa said it wants to repay state aid it received during the pandemic before Germany's federal election in September 2021 if possible. Also in June 2021, Lufthansa said it would change its communications to adopt a more gender-neutral and inclusive language. It will remove greetings such as "
Ladies and Gentlemen Ladies and Gentlemen may refer to: * Ladies and gentlemen (salutation), a common introductory phrase Film and television * ''Ladies & Gentlemen'' (2015 film), a Telugu film * ''Ladies & Gentlemen'' (TV series), a 2021 Bangladeshi drama serie ...
". In January 2022 Lufthansa admitted it had operated over 18,000 empty flights to keep airport slots during the pandemic. In March 2022, Lufthansa originally confirmed that its entire Airbus A380 fleet would be retired, having been in storage since early 2020. This decision was reversed in June 2022, with plans to now return up to five aircraft from storage by 2023 to be based at Munich Airport. There is also an option to return all remaining eight A380 back to service by 2024, as six of formerly 14 have already been sold. In May 2022, Skytrax demoted Lufthansa from its aforementioned 5 star rating which it held since 2017 as the first European carrier to do so, to an overall 4 star rating.


Corporate affairs


Ownership

Lufthansa was a
state-owned enterprise A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a Government, government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn Profit (econom ...
until 1994. Deutsche Lufthansa AG shares have been publicly traded on all German stock exchanges since 1966. In addition to floor trading, it is also traded electronically using the Xetra system. It is a
DAX Dax or DAX may refer to: Business and organizations * DAX, stock market index of the top 40 German companies ** DAX 100, an expanded index of 100 stocks, superseded by the HDAX ** TecDAX, stock index of the top 30 German technology firms * Dax ...
index share and is listed in the Frankfurt Stock Exchange's Prime Standard. At the end of 2019, the shareholders’ register showed that German investors held 67.3% of the shares (previous year: 72.1%). The second-largest group, with 10.4%, was shareholders from Luxembourg. Investors from the US accounted for 8.1%, followed by Ireland and the United Kingdom, each with 3.6%. This ensures compliance with the provisions of the German Aviation Compliance Documentation Act (LuftNaSiG). As of the reporting date, 58% of the shares were held by institutional investors (previous year: 53%), and 42% were held by private individuals (previous year: 47%). Lansdowne Partners International Ltd. and BlackRock, Inc. were the largest shareholders in the Lufthansa Group at year-end, with 4.9% and 3.1% respectively. All the transactions requiring disclosure and published during the financial year 2019, as well as the quarterly updates on the shareholder structure, are available online. During the 2020 COVID crisis
Heinz Hermann Thiele Heinz Hermann Thiele (2 April 1941 – 23 February 2021) was a German businessman and the chairman of Knorr-Bremse AG, a German automobile brakes manufacturer, and chairman of Vossloh, a German transport technology manufacturer. At the time of ...
increased his stake to more than 12%; he died a few months later. The free float for Lufthansa shares was 67% in 2020, as per the definition of the Deutsche Börse.


German government bail-out

The German government offered a €9 billion bailout to support the airline through COVID-19 induced economic issues. With this bailout, the government's stake in the airline increased to 20%, and also grant it board seats, while diluting existing shareholder stakes. The shareholders of the company approved the bailout on Thursday, June 26, offering the airline a fresh lease of life.


Business trends

Key business and operating results of the Lufthansa Group for recent years are shown below (as at year ending 31 December):


Headquarters

Lufthansa's corporate headquarters are in Cologne. In 1971, Lawrence Fellows of '' The New York Times'' described the then-new headquarters building that Lufthansa occupied in Cologne as "gleaming". In 1986, Left-wing terrorists bombed the building. No one was injured. In 2006, builders laid the first stone of the new Lufthansa headquarters in Deutz, Cologne. By the end of 2007, Lufthansa planned to move 800 employees, including the company's finance department, to the new building. However, in early 2013 Lufthansa revealed plans to relocate its head office from Cologne to Frankfurt by 2017. Several Lufthansa departments are not at the headquarters; instead they are in the Lufthansa Aviation Center at Frankfurt Airport. These departments include Corporate Communications and Investor Relations.


Airline subsidiaries

In addition to its main passenger operation, Lufthansa has several airline subsidiaries, including:


Wholly owned by Lufthansa

* Lufthansa German Airlines **
Lufthansa Regional Lufthansa Regional is an operational entity for regional and feeder flights performed by two regional airlines owned by Lufthansa within its route network.
– regional feeder entity *** Lufthansa CityLine – German regional airline headquartered in Munich and part of
Lufthansa Regional Lufthansa Regional is an operational entity for regional and feeder flights performed by two regional airlines owned by Lufthansa within its route network.
*** Air Dolomiti – Italian regional airline headquartered in Villafranca di Verona and part of
Lufthansa Regional Lufthansa Regional is an operational entity for regional and feeder flights performed by two regional airlines owned by Lufthansa within its route network.
** Eurowings Discover German long- and medium-haul leisure airline * Network Airlines ** Austrian Airlines – the flag carrier airline of Austria based at Vienna International Airport ** Swiss International Air Lines – the flag carrier airline of
Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
based at Zurich Airport ***
Edelweiss Air Edelweiss Air AG is a Swiss leisure airline, charter airline and the sister company of Swiss International Air Lines. It operates flights to European and intercontinental destinations from its base at Zürich Airport. History The airline w ...
– Swiss leisure airline subsidiary **
Brussels Airlines Brussels Airlines is the flag carrier and largest airline of Belgium, based and headquartered at Brussels Airport. It operates to over 100 destinations in Europe, North America and Africa and also offers charter services, maintenance and crew ...
– the flag carrier airline of Belgium based at
Brussels Airport Brussels Airport, nl, Luchthaven Brussel, vls, Vliegpling Brussel, german: Flughafen Brüssel is an international airport northeast of Brussels, the capital of Belgium. In 2019, more than 26 million passengers arrived or departed at Bruss ...
* Eurowings Group (low-cost or hybrid point-to-point airlines) ** Eurowings – German low-cost airline headquartered in Düsseldorf **
Eurowings Europe Eurowings Europe is a low-cost airline registered in Malta that is a subsidiary of Lufthansa and a sister company of the German Eurowings. History In January 2016, ch-aviation reported that Eurowings Europe expected to start operations in the m ...
– low-cost airline registered in Austria * Lufthansa Cargo – German cargo airline headquartered in Frankfurt, formerly
German Cargo German Cargo Services GmbH, operating as German Cargo, was an airline from (West) Germany that operated cargo flights on behalf of Lufthansa, of which it was a wholly owned subsidiary. History International Air Transport Association (IATA), ...


Partly owned by Lufthansa

* AeroLogic – German cargo airline owned by a joint-venture of Lufthansa (50%) and
DHL DHL is an American founded, German logistics company providing courier, package delivery and express mail service, which is a division of the German logistics firm Deutsche Post. The company group delivers over 1.8 billion parcels per year. DHL ...
(50%) *
SunExpress SunExpress, is a Turkish-German airline based in Antalya. SunExpress was founded in October 1989 as a joint venture between Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa. It operates scheduled and chartered passenger flights to 90 destinations in 30 countries ...
– Turkish leisure airline jointly owned by Lufthansa (50%) and Turkish Airlines (50%)


Former

*
British Midland International British Midland Airways Limited (trading at various times throughout its history as British Midland, bmi British Midland, bmi or British Midland International) was an airline with its head office in Donington Hall in Castle Donington, close to ...
(2009–2011, stake owned since 1999) – British airline subsidiary sold to International Airlines Group and merged into British Airways in 2012 * Condor Flugdienst (1959–2004, stakes owned from 1955 until 2006) – former leisure subsidiary, shares gradually acquired by Thomas Cook AG, later owned by
Thomas Cook Group Thomas Cook Group plc was a global travel group, headquartered in the United Kingdom and listed on the London Stock Exchange from its formation on 19 June 2007 by the merger of Thomas Cook AG — successor to Thomas Cook & Son — an ...
*
German Cargo German Cargo Services GmbH, operating as German Cargo, was an airline from (West) Germany that operated cargo flights on behalf of Lufthansa, of which it was a wholly owned subsidiary. History International Air Transport Association (IATA), ...
(1977–1993) – cargo subsidiary, reorganized into the current Lufthansa Cargo *
Luftfahrtgesellschaft Walter German Airways Fluggesellschaft GmbH, operating as German Airways and formerly named ''Luftfahrtgesellschaft Walter'' or ''LGW'' for short, was a German regional airline headquartered in Düsseldorf. Originally LGW was an independent provider ...
– German low-cost regional airline integrated into Eurowings in October 2017, sold to Zeitfracht in 2019 *
Lufthansa Italia Lufthansa Italia S.p.A. was an Italian airline and a wholly owned subsidiary of the German Lufthansa Group headquartered in Milan and based at Milan–Malpensa Airport. Operations started on 2 February 2009 and ceased on 29 October 2011.
(2009–2011) – Italian airline subsidiary established, sharing IATA, ICAO, and callsigns with the main Lufthansa *
SunExpress Deutschland SunExpress, is a Turkish-German airline based in Antalya. SunExpress was founded in October 1989 as a joint venture between Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa. It operates scheduled and chartered passenger flights to 90 destinations in 30 countries ...
(2011–2020) – German subsidiary of
SunExpress SunExpress, is a Turkish-German airline based in Antalya. SunExpress was founded in October 1989 as a joint venture between Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa. It operates scheduled and chartered passenger flights to 90 destinations in 30 countries ...
aerotelegraph.com
(German) 23 June 2020


Other subsidiaries

In addition to the airlines mentioned above, Lufthansa maintains further aviation affiliated subsidiaries: * Global Load Control, a world leader in remote weight and balance services. * LSG Sky Chefs, the world's largest airline caterer, which accounts for one-third of the world's airline meals. * Lufthansa Consulting, an international aviation consultancy for airlines, airports, and related industries. *
Lufthansa Flight Training Lufthansa Aviation Training GmbH is the flight academy subsidiary of Lufthansa, that trains Lufthansa Group pilots as well as cabin and technical staff. The company has about 500 employees and has been in business for around 50 years. Operat ...
, a provider of flight crew training services to various airlines and the main training arm for the airline's pilots. *
Lufthansa Systems Lufthansa Systems is an information technology service provider for the aviation industry. It has around 2,200 employees in several locations in Germany and offices in 16 other countries. The company is headquartered in Raunheim near Frankfurt. ...
, the largest European aviation IT provider. * Lufthansa Technik, aircraft maintenance providers. * Lufthansa City Center International, a network of independent travel agents who are Lufthansa franchisees * Lufthansa AirPlus Servicekarten GMBH, (AirPlus International) travel payment company via UATP and Mastercard.


Branding

The Lufthansa logo, an encircled stylized crane in flight, was first created in 1918 by Otto Firle. It was part of the livery of the first German airline,
Deutsche Luft-Reederei Deutsche Luft-Reederei (D.L.R.), was a German airline established in December 1917 which started operating in 1919. History The name means "German (Deutsche) Air (Luft) Shipping Company (Reederei)". D.L.R. was reorganized as Aero Lloyd AG in 1 ...
(abbreviated DLR), which began air service on 5 February 1919. In 1926, Deutsche Luft Hansa adopted this symbol, and in 1954, Lufthansa expressed continuity by adopting it and later in 1963 – a variant thereof as redesigned by
Robert Lisovskyi Robert Lisovskyi ( uk, Роберт Антонович Лісовський; 29 December 1893 – 28 December 1982) was a Ukrainian artist and graphic designer, a follower of Mykhailo Boychuk and Heorhiy Narbut. He was specializing in variou ...
. 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 Junkers Flugzeug- und Motorenwerke AG (JFM, earlier JCO or JKO in World War I, English: Junkers Aircraft and Motor Works) more commonly Junkers , was a major German aircraft and aircraft engine manufacturer. It was founded there in Dessau, Germ ...
' airline ( Luftverkehr AG) and ''Deutscher Aero Lloyd''.Lufthansa Chronicle
Konzern.lufthansa.com (28 June 2011). Retrieved on 8 July 2011.
After World War II, the company kept blue and yellow as its main colours and the crane logo. Since the beginning of the 1960s, Helvetica was used for the company name in the livery. The 1970s retro livery featured the top half of the fuselage painted in all-white on top and the lower fuselage (bottom half, including the engines) was gray/silver aluminium, below a blue cheatline window band and a black painted nose. The crane logo was painted blue on the engines, on the bottom half of the fuselage just below the cockpit windows, and a yellow circle inside a blue band on the tail. German designer
Otl Aicher Otto "Otl" Aicher (; 13 May 1922 – 1 September 1991) was a German graphic designer and typographer. Aicher co-founded and taught at the influential Ulm School of Design. He is known for having led the design team of the 1972 Summer Olympics ...
created a comprehensive corporate design for the airline in 1967. The crane logo was now always displayed in a circle which, on the livery, was yellow on an otherwise blue tailfin. Helvetica was used as the main typeface for both the livery and publications. The blue band and general paint scheme of the aircraft were retained from the previous livery. Aicher's concept was retained in the 1988 design. The window band was removed and the fuselage was painted in grey. In 2018, Lufthansa changed their livery. The encircled crane was retained, and the background changed from yellow to dark blue. The vertical stabilizer and the rear fuselage were painted in dark blue, and the tail cone remained white. The main fuselage was painted in all white, and the brand name "Lufthansa" was painted above the windows, also in dark blue. The company slogan is 'Say yes to the world.'


Alliances and partnerships


Commercial

Lufthansa bought a 19% stake in JetBlue Airways in December 2007 and entered a code-sharing agreement with the airline. It was the first major investment by a European carrier in an American carrier since the EU–U.S. Open Skies Agreement came into effect in 2008. Lufthansa sold its stake in JetBlue in March 2015. In late 2007, Lufthansa Cargo was forced to relocate a hub from Kazakhstan to Russia. On 28 August 2008, Lufthansa and
Brussels Airlines Brussels Airlines is the flag carrier and largest airline of Belgium, based and headquartered at Brussels Airport. It operates to over 100 destinations in Europe, North America and Africa and also offers charter services, maintenance and crew ...
announced that they were negotiating a merger. Lufthansa acquired a 45% stake in Brussels Airlines in 2009. It has an option to acquire the remaining 55% by 2017. As a part of the deal Brussels Airlines joined Star Alliance in December 2009. On 28 October 2008, Lufthansa exercised its option to purchase a further 60% share in BMI (in addition to the 20% Lufthansa already owned), this resulted in a dispute with the former owner Sir Michael Bishop. Both parties reached an agreement at the end of June 2009, and the acquisition took place with effect from 1 July 2009. Lufthansa acquired the remaining 20% from Scandinavian Airlines on 1 November 2009, taking complete control of BMI. Lufthansa completed the purchase of Austrian Airlines from the Austrian government in January 2009. In 2010, Lufthansa was named in a European Commission investigation into price-fixing, but was not fined because it acted as a whistleblower. In April 2012, Lufthansa completed the sale of BMI to International Airlines Group (IAG), owner of British Airways and Iberia for £172.5 million. In July 2012, a Qantas–Lufthansa Technik maintenance deal for Tullamarine airport fell through due to having insufficient engine maintenance work to support the partnership. This resulted in 164 engineers being made redundant. This followed just months after the closing of heavy maintenance operations, which resulted in 400 additional job losses. It was announced that the Lufthansa Technik–Qantas partnership would end in September. Lufthansa also coordinates scheduling and ticket sales on transatlantic flights with Air Canada and United Airlines (as do Brussels Airlines, Swiss and Austrian Airlines). Lufthansa (with Swiss and Austrian Airlines) cooperates similarly with ANA on flights to Japan. Both ventures required the approval of competition authorities.


Technology

Until April 2009 Lufthansa inventory and departure control systems, based on Unisys were managed by LH Systems. Lufthansa reservations systems were outsourced to Amadeus in the early 1990s. Following a decision to outsource all components of the Passenger Service System, the functions were outsourced to the Altéa platform managed by Amadeus.


Partner airlines

Lufthansa describes Air Malta,
Luxair Luxair, legally ''Luxair S.A., Société Luxembourgeoise de Navigation Aérienne'', is the flag carrier airline of Luxembourg with its headquarters and hub at Luxembourg Airport. It operates scheduled services to destinations in Europe, North Af ...
, and
LATAM LATAM Airlines Group S.A. is an airline holding company headquartered in Santiago, Chile. It is considered the largest airline company in Latin America with subsidiaries in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru. The company filed for Ch ...
as partner airlines. The partnerships mainly involve code-sharing and recognition of each other's frequent flier programmes.


Sponsorships

Lufthansa sponsors Bundesliga club
Eintracht Frankfurt Eintracht Frankfurt e.V. () is a professional sports club based in Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany. It is best known for its football club, which was founded on 8 March 1899. The team is currently playing in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the Germa ...
. The Lufthansa Group also sponsors the German Sports Aid Foundation to promote its sociopolitical goals and the athletes it sponsors.


Destinations


Codeshare agreements

Lufthansa codeshares with the following airlines: *
Aegean Airlines Aegean Airlines S.A. ( el, Αερογραμμές Αιγαίου Ανώνυμη Εταιρεία ''Aeroporía Aigaíou Anónimi Etairía'', ) is the flag carrier airline of Greece and the largest Greek airline by total number of passengers carri ...
* Air Astana * airBaltic * Air Canada *
Air China Air China Limited () is the flag carrier of the People's Republic of China and one of the "Big Three" mainland Chinese airlines (alongside China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines). Air China's headquarters are in Shunyi District, ...
* Air Dolomiti LH * Air India * Air Malta * Air New Zealand * All Nippon Airways * Asiana Airlines * Austrian Airlines LH * Avianca *
Brussels Airlines Brussels Airlines is the flag carrier and largest airline of Belgium, based and headquartered at Brussels Airport. It operates to over 100 destinations in Europe, North America and Africa and also offers charter services, maintenance and crew ...
LH *
Cathay Pacific Cathay Pacific Airways Limited (CPA), more widely known as Cathay Pacific (), is the flag carrier of Hong Kong, with its head office and main hub located at Hong Kong International Airport. The airline's operations and subsidiaries have sc ...
* Copa Airlines * Croatia Airlines *
EgyptAir Egyptair (Egyptian Arabic Egyptian Arabic, locally known as Colloquial Egyptian ( ar, العامية المصرية, ), or simply Masri (also Masry) (), is the most widely spoken vernacular Arabic dialect in Egypt. It is part of the Afro-A ...
* Ethiopian Airlines *
Etihad Airways Etihad Airways ( ar, شَرِكَة ٱلْاِتِّحَاد لِلطَّيْرَان, sharikat al-ittiḥād li-ṭ-ṭayarān) is one of two flag carriers of the United Arab Emirates (the other being Emirates). Its head office is in Khalifa ...
* Eurowings LH * Iran Air * LATAM Airlines *
LOT Polish Airlines LOT Polish Airlines, legally incorporated as Polskie Linie Lotnicze LOT S.A. (, ''flight''), is the flag carrier of Poland. Established in 1928, LOT was a founding member of IATA and remains one of the world's oldest airlines in operation. Wit ...
*
Luxair Luxair, legally ''Luxair S.A., Société Luxembourgeoise de Navigation Aérienne'', is the flag carrier airline of Luxembourg with its headquarters and hub at Luxembourg Airport. It operates scheduled services to destinations in Europe, North Af ...
*
Scandinavian Airlines Scandinavian Airlines, more commonly known and styled as SAS, is the flag carrier of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. ''SAS'' is an abbreviation of the company's full name, Scandinavian Airlines System or legally Scandinavian Airlines System Denmark ...
* Shenzhen Airlines * Singapore Airlines *
South African Airways South African Airways (SAA) is the flag carrier airline of South Africa. Founded in 1934, the airline is headquartered in Airways Park at O. R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg and operated a hub-and-spoke network, serving ten destin ...
*
SunExpress SunExpress, is a Turkish-German airline based in Antalya. SunExpress was founded in October 1989 as a joint venture between Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa. It operates scheduled and chartered passenger flights to 90 destinations in 30 countries ...
LH * Swiss International Air Lines LH * TAP Air Portugal *
Thai Airways International Thai Airways International Public Company Limited, trading as THAI (, th, บริษัท การบินไทย จำกัด (มหาชน)) is the flag carrier airline of Thailand. Formed in 1961, the airline has its corporate h ...
* Turkish Airlines * United Airlines * Vistara LH Part of the Lufthansa Group.


Fleet


Aircraft naming conventions

In September 1960, a Lufthansa Boeing 707 (D-ABOC), which would serve the Frankfurt-New York intercontinental route, was christened ''Berlin'' after the divided city of Berlin by then-mayor Willy Brandt. Following ''Berlin'', other Lufthansa 707 planes were named " Hamburg", " Frankfurt", "
München Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...
", and " Bonn." With these names, the company established a tradition of
naming Naming is assigning a name to something. Naming may refer to: * Naming (parliamentary procedure), a procedure in certain parliamentary bodies * Naming ceremony, an event at which an infant is named * Product naming, the discipline of deciding wha ...
the planes in its fleet after German cities and towns or federal states, with a rule of thumb that the airplane make, size, or route would correspond roughly to the relative size or importance of the city or town it was named after. This tradition continued, with two notable exceptions, until 2010: The first was an Airbus A340-300 registered D-AIFC, named "Gander/Halifax", after Gander and Halifax, two Canadian cities along the standard flight path from Europe to North America. It became the first Lufthansa airplane named after a non-German city. The name commemorates the hospitality of the communities of Gander and Halifax, which served as improvised safe havens for the passengers and crew of the multitude of international aircraft unable to return to their originating airports during
Operation Yellow Ribbon Operation Yellow Ribbon (french: Opération ruban jaune) was commenced by Canada to handle the diversion of civilian airline flights in response to the September 11 attacks in 2001 on the United States. Canada's goal was to ensure that potential ...
after the
September 11, 2001 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...
. The other aircraft not named after a German city was an
Airbus A321-100 The Airbus A321 is a member of the Airbus A320 family of short to medium range, narrow-body, commercial passenger twin engine jet airliners; it carries 185 to 236 passengers. It has a stretched fuselage which was the first derivative of the ba ...
registered as D-AIRA, which was designated ''Finkenwerder'' in honor of the Airbus facility in the district of
Hamburg-Finkenwerder Finkenwerder (; Low German: ''Finkwarder'', ''Finkenwarder'' or ''- wärder''; German: ''Finkeninsel''; translation: Island of finches) is a quarter of Hamburg, Germany in the borough Hamburg-Mitte. It is the location of a plant of Airbus and its a ...
,lh-taufnamen.de - Lufthansa
retrieved 20 June 2016
where about 40% of Airbus narrowbody models are manufactured. In February 2010, Lufthansa announced that its first two Airbus A380s would be named ''Frankfurt am Main'' (D-AIMA) and ''München'' (D-AIMB) after Lufthansa's two hub airports. Subsequent A380 aircraft were named after other Lufthansa Group hub airports '' Zurich'', ''Wien'' ( Vienna) and ''Brüssel'' ( Brussels) and the major German cities of '' Düsseldorf'' and '' Berlin''. The remaining A380s were named after Star Alliance hub cities ''Tokyo'', ''Beijing'', ''Johannesburg'', ''New York'', ''San Francisco'' and ''Delhi''. However, D-AIMN ''San Francisco'' was renamed ''Deutschland'' (Germany) in 2016. As of 2016, there are several short- and long-haul aircraft in Lufthansa's fleet that do not bear any name. They either never received one or their former one has been given to a newer aircraft, which was the case for several
Boeing 747-400 The Boeing 747-400 is a large, long-range wide-body airliner produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, an advanced variant of the initial Boeing 747. The "Advanced Series 300" was announced at the September 1984 Farnborough Airshow, targeting ...
s. For example, the former ''Bayern'' ( Bavaria), a Boeing 747-400 still in active service lost that name to a new Boeing 747-8I.


Vintage aircraft restoration

Lufthansa Technik, the airline's maintenance arm, restored a Junkers Ju 52/3m built in 1936 to airworthiness; this aircraft was in use on the 10-hour Berlin to Rome route, across the Alps, in the 1930s. Lufthansa is now restoring a
Lockheed Super Constellation The Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation is an American aircraft, a member of the Lockheed Constellation aircraft line. The L-1049 was Lockheed's response to the successful Douglas DC-6 airliner, first flying in 1950. The aircraft was also produc ...
, using parts from three such aircraft bought at auctions. Lufthansa's Super Constellations and L1649 "Starliners" served routes such as Hamburg- Madrid- Dakar-
Caracas Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...
- Santiago. Lufthansa Technik recruits retired employees and volunteers for skilled labour.


Airbus A380

Lufthansa had initially ordered a total of 15
Airbus A380-800 The Airbus A380 is a large wide-body airliner that was developed and produced by Airbus. It is the world's largest passenger airliner and only full-length double-deck jet airliner. Airbus studies started in 1988, and the project was annou ...
, of which by June 2012 ten were delivered. In September 2011, the order was increased by two more to 17, this order was confirmed on 14 March 2013. However, in September 2013 it was announced that the Lufthansa Supervisory Board had approved the purchase of only twelve of the first 15 A380s. Thus, a total of 14 A380s have been added to the fleet. Lufthansa uses its A380s from and to Frankfurt am Main (9 aircraft) and since March 2018 to and from Munich as well (5 aircraft). From 6 to 12 December 2011, Lufthansa already used an A380 once a day on the route from Munich to New York-JFK. This happened mainly against the backdrop of Christmas shopping in New York City. On 13 March 2019, Lufthansa announced that it will be removing 6 A380 aircraft from the fleet and replacing them with Boeing 787-9 and Airbus A350-900 aircraft. On December 2 2022,
Lufthansa Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), commonly shortened to Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. When combined with its subsidiaries, it is the second- largest airline in Europe in terms of passengers carried. Lufthansa is one of the five founding m ...
ungrounded one of its A380s. After 3 years in storage, D-AIMK a 9 year old
Airbus A380-800 The Airbus A380 is a large wide-body airliner that was developed and produced by Airbus. It is the world's largest passenger airliner and only full-length double-deck jet airliner. Airbus studies started in 1988, and the project was annou ...
leaves storage. Its flight departs from Teruel Airport to Frankfurt Airport, Lufthansa’s main hub. The aircraft can’t retract its landing gear, so it flies slower and lower during the extended 3 hour flight. It should enter official service by summer of 2023. On 8 March 2020, Lufthansa announced that it would be grounding all of its A380 aircraft due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Lufthansa announced on 27 June 2022 that the remaining fleet of eight A380s will be reactivated and brought back into service for the 2023 summer season. The stronger than anticipated customer demand and quicker recovery of international travel from the pandemic is cited as one of two reasons. The other reason is the persistent delay of Boeing 777-9 delivery, which Lufthansa would not receive until 2025 or later. Lufthansa is still assessing how many and which A380 will be reactivated and which route the A380 will serve again.


Services


Frequent-flyer programme

Lufthansa's frequent-flyer programme is called ''Miles & More'', and is shared among several European airlines, including all of Lufthansa's subsidiary airlines (excluding the
SunExpress SunExpress, is a Turkish-German airline based in Antalya. SunExpress was founded in October 1989 as a joint venture between Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa. It operates scheduled and chartered passenger flights to 90 destinations in 30 countries ...
joint ventures), plus Condor (formerly owned by Lufthansa), Croatia Airlines,
LOT Polish Airlines LOT Polish Airlines, legally incorporated as Polskie Linie Lotnicze LOT S.A. (, ''flight''), is the flag carrier of Poland. Established in 1928, LOT was a founding member of IATA and remains one of the world's oldest airlines in operation. Wit ...
, and
Luxair Luxair, legally ''Luxair S.A., Société Luxembourgeoise de Navigation Aérienne'', is the flag carrier airline of Luxembourg with its headquarters and hub at Luxembourg Airport. It operates scheduled services to destinations in Europe, North Af ...
(previously part-owned by Lufthansa). Miles & More members may earn miles on Lufthansa flights and Star Alliance partner flights, as well as through Lufthansa credit cards, and purchases made through the Lufthansa shops. Status within Miles & More is determined by miles flown during one calendar year with specific partners. Membership levels include: Miles & More member (no minimal threshold), Frequent Traveller (Silver, threshold or 30 individual flights), Senator (Gold, threshold), and HON Circle (Black, threshold over two calendar years). All Miles & More status levels higher than Miles & More member offer lounge access and executive bonus miles, with the higher levels offering more exclusive benefits.


Cabins


First Class

First Class is offered on most long-haul aircraft (all Airbus A340-600s, the front part of the upper deck of all Airbus A380s, and the nose of the main deck of all Boeing 747-8Is). Each seat converts to a bed, includes laptop power outlets, as well as entertainment facilities. Meals are available on demand. Lufthansa offers dedicated First Class check-in counters at most airports, and offers dedicated First Class lounges in Frankfurt and Munich, as well as a dedicated first-class terminal in Frankfurt. Arriving passengers have the option of using Lufthansa's First Class arrival facilities, as well as the new Welcome Lounge. Lufthansa introduced a new First Class product aboard the Airbus A380 and planned to gradually introduce it on all of its long-haul aircraft. However, with the new program SCORE, introduced to boost profits by 1.5 billion euros over the following years, Lufthansa halted route expansion and extensively decreased its First Class offerings on most routes. In 2017 the airline announced that its first few Boeing 777-9s would not include First Class seats, however, First Class could be installed on later deliveries. the only remaining First Class seats Lufthansa offered were on its
Boeing 747-8I The Boeing 747-8 is a Wide-body aircraft, wide-body airliner formerly developed by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, and the largest variant of the Boeing 747, 747. After introducing the 747-400, Boeing considered larger 747 versions as alternative ...
s, with 10
Airbus A350-900 The Airbus A350 is a long-range, wide-body twin-engine jet airliner developed and produced by Airbus. The first A350 design proposed by Airbus in 2004, in response to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, would have been a development of the A330 wi ...
s with First Class seats


Business Class

Business Class is offered on all long-haul aircraft. Seats convert to lie-flat beds and include laptop power outlets and entertainment facilities. Lufthansa offers dedicated Business Class check-in counters at all airports, as well as dedicated Business Class lounges at most airports, or contract lounges at other airports, as well as the Lufthansa Welcome Lounge upon arrival in Frankfurt. As of 2014, Business Class on all wide-body aircraft feature lie-flat seats. Lufthansa released plans for a new business class set to be released in 2022 on the Boeing 787-9, and will retrofit the rest of the fleet in the coming years.


Premium Economy

Introduced in 2014, Lufthansa's long-haul Premium Economy was rolled out on all long-haul aircraft, starting with some Boeing 747-8Is. Similar in design to Air Canada's Premium Economy or British Airways' World Traveller Plus cabins, Premium Economy features pitch along with up to more width than economy class, depending on the aircraft. The seats also feature a personal seat-back entertainment screen and a larger armrest separating seats. Along with the planned introduction of the Boeing 777-9X, the airline plans to add a new Premium Economy cabin with a "shell" design. These seats are also to be installed on SWISS' Boeing 777-300ERs and Airbus A340-300s from the first and second quarter of 2021, respectively.


Economy Class

Lufthansa's long-haul Economy Class is offered on all long-haul aircraft. All have a seat pitch except the Airbus A380s, which have a seat pitch. Passengers receive meals, as well as free drinks. The whole fleet offers Audio-Video-On-Demand ( AVOD) screens in Economy Class.


Airport lounges and terminals

Lufthansa operates four types of lounges within its destination network: First Class, Senator, Business, and Welcome Lounges. Each departure lounge is accessible both through travel class, or Miles and More/Star Alliance status; the Welcome Lounge is limited to arriving premium passengers of the Lufthansa Group and United Airlines only. Lufthansa also operates a dedicated first class terminal at Frankfurt Airport. The first terminal of its kind, access is limited only to departing Lufthansa First Class, same day Lufthansa Group first class and HON Circle members. Approximately 200 staff care for approximately 300 passengers per day in the terminal, which features a full-service restaurant, full bar, cigar lounge, relaxation rooms, and offices, as well as bath facilities. Guests are driven directly to their departing flight by Mercedes S-Class or V-Class, or Porsche
Cayenne Cayenne (; ; gcr, Kayenn) is the capital city of French Guiana, an overseas region and Overseas department, department of France located in South America. The city stands on a former island at the mouth of the Cayenne River on the Atlantic Oc ...
or Panamera vehicles.


Bus service

A bus service from Nuremberg Airport to Munich Airport was reinstated in 2021 to replace short-haul flights between both cities. Lufthansa operated a check-in point in Nuremberg and a bus service from Nuremberg to Munich Airport in the late 1990s.


Accidents and incidents

This is a list of accidents and incidents involving Lufthansa mainline aircraft since 1956. For earlier occurrences, refer to Deutsche Luft Hansa. For accidents and incidents on Lufthansa-branded flights which were operated by other airlines, see the respective articles ( Lufthansa CityLine, Lufthansa Cargo, Contact Air, Germanwings, and Air Dolomiti).


Fatal

* On 11 January 1959,
Lufthansa Flight 502 __NOTOC__ Lufthansa Flight 502 was a scheduled flight from Hamburg, Germany to Buenos Aires, Argentina on 11 January 1959. The flight was being operated by a Lockheed L-1049G Super Constellation (registration D-ALAK). On the leg between Senegal ...
, a Lufthansa
Lockheed Super Constellation The Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation is an American aircraft, a member of the Lockheed Constellation aircraft line. The L-1049 was Lockheed's response to the successful Douglas DC-6 airliner, first flying in 1950. The aircraft was also produc ...
( registered D-ALAK) crashed onto a beach shortly off
Galeão Airport Galeão (Portuguese meaning galleon) may refer to: *Galeão Air Force Base, a Brazilian Air Force base in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil *Rio de Janeiro–Galeão International Airport (Galeão–Antonio Carlos Jobim International Airport), an airport in t ...
in Rio de Janeiro following a scheduled passenger flight from Hamburg, Germany. Of the 29 passengers and 10 crew members on board, only the co-pilot and 2 flight attendants survived. The investigation into the accident resulted in blaming the pilots for having executed a too low approach, which may have been caused by fatigue. * On 4 December 1961, a Lufthansa Boeing 720 (registered D-ABOK) crashed of unknown causes near Mainz during a training flight from Frankfurt to Cologne, killing the three occupants. It was the first crash involving an aircraft of that type. * On 15 July 1964, another Boeing 720 (registered D-ABOP) crashed during a training flight, with the three people, including Werner Baake, on board losing their lives (in what was only the second crash for this aircraft type). The accident occurred near Ansbach after the pilots had lost control of the aircraft when executing an aileron roll. * On 28 January 1966 at 17:50 local time,
Lufthansa Flight 005 Lufthansa Flight 005 was a scheduled flight en route from Frankfurt to Hamburg with a stopover in Bremen. The aircraft crashed just beyond the runway in Bremen just before 19:00 on 28 January 1966, in a go-around after an aborted landing. All o ...
from Frankfurt to
Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...
, which was operated using a
Convair CV-440 Metropolitan The Convair CV-240 is an American airliner that Convair manufactured from 1947 to 1954, initially as a possible replacement for the ubiquitous Douglas DC-3. Featuring a more modern design with cabin pressurization, the 240 series made some inroa ...
registered D-ACAT, crashed short of Bremen Airport, killing all 42 passengers and 4 crew members on board. The pilots had tried to execute a go-around when approaching the airport, during which the aircraft
stalled ''Stalled'' is a 2013 British zombie comedy film directed by Christian James. It stars Dan Palmer, who also wrote the screenplay, as a man confined to a bathroom stall after zombies attack. Produced by Richard Kerrigan and Daniel Pickering, the f ...
and went out of control, possibly due to pilot error. * On 20 November 1974 at 07:54 local time,
Lufthansa Flight 540 Lufthansa Flight 540 was a scheduled commercial flight for Lufthansa, serving the Frankfurt–Nairobi–Johannesburg route. On 20 November 1974, the Boeing 747-130 that was operating as Flight 540 was carrying 157 people (140 passenge ...
, a
Boeing 747-100 The Boeing 747 is a large, long-range wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2022. After introducing the 707 in October 1958, Pan Am wanted a jet times its size, to ...
(registered D-ABYB), lost power and crashed shortly after take-off at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in what was the first air accident involving a Boeing 747. 55 out of the 140 passengers and 4 out of the 17 crew lost their lives, making it the worst accident in the history of the airline. * On 26 July 1979 at 21:32 UTC, a cargo-configured
Boeing 707 The Boeing 707 is an American, long-range, narrow-body airliner, the first jetliner developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype first flown in 1954, the initial first flew on December 20, ...
(registered D-ABUY) that was en route
Lufthansa Flight 527 Lufthansa Cargo Flight 527 was a Lufthansa Cargo, Lufthansa cargo flight scheduled to fly from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil to Dakar, the capital of Senegal. On 26 July 1979, shortly after take-off in Rio, the Boeing 707 flew into a slope and crashed. ...
from Rio de Janeiro to Dakar and onwards to Germany crashed into a mountain from
Galeão Airport Galeão (Portuguese meaning galleon) may refer to: *Galeão Air Force Base, a Brazilian Air Force base in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil *Rio de Janeiro–Galeão International Airport (Galeão–Antonio Carlos Jobim International Airport), an airport in t ...
during initial climb, killing the three crew members on board. A flawed communication between the pilots and the air traffic controller had resulted in the aircraft flying on a wrong path. * In January 1984, a woman was found dead in a suitcase which was lying on an
LAX Los Angeles International Airport , commonly referred to as LAX (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary international airport serving Los Angeles, California and its surrounding metropolitan area. LAX is located in the W ...
baggage carousel for a while. The suitcase had arrived on a Lufthansa flight. The woman was later discovered to have been an Iranian citizen who had recently married another Iranian with UGreen card status. She had been denied a US visa in West Germany and therefore decided to enter the US like this. * On 14 September 1993, Lufthansa Flight 2904, an Airbus A320-200 (registered D-AIPN) flying from Frankfurt to Warsaw with 64 passengers and 4 crew members on board, overran the runway upon landing at Warsaw-Okecie Airport, and crashed into an earth embankment, resulting in the death of the
co-pilot In aviation, the first officer (FO), also called co-pilot, is the pilot who is second-in-command of the aircraft to the captain, who is the legal commander. In the event of incapacitation of the captain, the first officer will assume command o ...
and one passenger. * On May 28, 1999,
German border police Bundesgrenzschutz (BGS; en, Federalism, Federal Border guard, Border Guard) is the former name of the German Federal Police (Germany), ''Bundespolizei'' (Federal Police). Established on 16 March 1951 as a subordinate agency of the Federal Minis ...
suffocated to death
Aamir Ageeb Amir Ageeb or Aamir Ageeb (c. 1968 or 1969 – 28 May 1999) was a Sudanese who was killed while resisting deportation from Germany, leading to a lawsuit against the involved officers. At Frankfurt Airport, Ageeb physically resisted the three Bunde ...
, whom they were escorting aboard Lufthansa Flight 588 from Frankfurt to Cairo. During takeoff, the officers restrained and pinned down Ageeb, a Sudanese man deported from Germany after being rejected for asylum. The aircraft made an emergency landing in Munich. The incident led to the
German interior ministry The Federal Ministry of the Interior and for Community (german: Bundesministerium des Innern und für Heimat, ; ''Heimat'' also translates to "homeland"), abbreviated , is a cabinet-level ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany. Its main ...
suspending its policy of forcible air deportation, and contributed to protests over Lufthansa's role in transporting deported asylum seekers.


Non-fatal

* On 20 December 1973 at 00:33 local time, a Lufthansa
Boeing 707 The Boeing 707 is an American, long-range, narrow-body airliner, the first jetliner developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype first flown in 1954, the initial first flew on December 20, ...
(registered D-ABOT) with 98 passengers and 11 crew members on board collided with a middle marker shack upon approaching
Palam Airport Indira Gandhi International Airport is the primary international airport serving Delhi, the capital of India, and the National Capital Region (India), National Capital Region (NCR). The airport, spread over an area of , is situated in Palam, D ...
in Delhi following a scheduled passenger flight from Bangkok (as part of a multi-leg flight back to Germany). There were no injuries, but the aircraft was damaged beyond repair. Visibility was poor at the time of the accident. * On 18 October 1983, a Boeing 747-200 freighter ran off the runway at Kai Tak airport in Hong Kong and got bogged in the grass after an engine failure during take-off. * On 11 June 2018, one of the airline's Airbus A340-300s, registered as D-AIFA, was being towed to its departure gate at Frankfurt Airport when the towing vehicle caught fire. Despite the quick action of the airport fire brigade, the aircraft suffered substantial fire and smoke damage to the nose and flight deck. Six people were treated for smoke inhalation.


Hijackings and criminal events

* In 1972, the year of the Munich Summer Olympics, there were four reported hijackings involving Lufthansa aircraft: ** On 22 February, Flight 649, a Boeing 747-200 (registered D-ABYD) with 172 passengers and 15 crew members on board was hijacked en route from New Delhi to Athens (as part of a multi-leg flight from Tokyo to Frankfurt) by five Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorists who then pressed for a $5 million ransom from the German government. The aircraft landed at Aden International Airport, and the hostages were released on the following day once the demands of the perpetrators were accepted. ** On 10 July, a similar hijacking attempt occurred on board a Lufthansa
Boeing 737-100 The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Renton Factory in Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating with two un ...
during a flight from Cologne to Munich. ** 11 October a Boeing 727 was hijacked on a flight from
Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...
to Frankfurt. Upon landing at Frankfurt Airport, the perpetrator tried to flee but was captured by police forces. ** On 29 October, two men hijacked Flight 615 with 11 other passengers and 7 crew members on board during a flight from Beirut to Ankara (and onwards to Germany), in order to liberate the three surviving members of the
Black September Black September ( ar, أيلول الأسود; ''Aylūl Al-Aswad''), also known as the Jordanian Civil War, was a conflict fought in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan between the Jordanian Armed Forces (JAF), under the leadership of King Hussein ...
group responsible for the Munich massacre. Whilst the hijacked Boeing 727 (registered D-ABIG) was forced to circle over Zagreb Airport in danger of eventual fuel starvation, the West German authorities decided to comply with the demands. The prisoners were handed over and the aircraft was allowed to be flown to
Tripoli Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to: Cities and other geographic units Greece *Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in ...
, where the hostages were released. * On 17 December 1973, in the wake of the events surrounding Pan Am Flight 110, a parked Lufthansa
Boeing 737-100 The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Renton Factory in Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating with two un ...
(registered D-ABEY) was hijacked at Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport in Rome. 10 Italian hostages that had been taken by Palestinian terrorists at the airport were forced into the aircraft by 5 perpetrators, and the German crew (2 pilots and 2 flight attendants) that was on board preparing the departure to Munich had to fly the aircraft instead first to Athens and then to several other airports until the ordeal ended at Kuwait International Airport the next day, where the hijackers surrendered. * On 28 June 1977, a Lufthansa Boeing 727 was hijacked during a flight from Frankfurt to Istanbul and forced to divert to Munich. * The Hijacking of the Landshut occurred on 13 October 1977, at a time when West Germany had come under intense terroristic pressure known as German Autumn. The Boeing 737-200 (registered D-ABCE) was hijacked en route Flight 181 from
Palma de Mallorca Palma (; ; also known as ''Palma de Mallorca'', officially between 1983–88, 2006–08, and 2012–16) is the capital and largest city of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. It is situate ...
to Frankfurt by 4 terrorists of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, who thus wanted to force the German government to release several RAF terrorists. The crew had to divert the aircraft with 87 other passengers first to Rome, and then onwards to Larnaca, Bahrain, Dubai,
Aden Aden ( ar, عدن ' Yemeni: ) is a city, and since 2015, the temporary capital of Yemen, near the eastern approach to the Red Sea (the Gulf of Aden), some east of the strait Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000 people. ...
(where the captain was killed when he returned to the aircraft after negotiations with the local authorities), and finally to Mogadishu in an ordeal that took several days. At
Mogadishu Airport Aden Adde International Airport ( so, Garoonka Caalamiga Ee Aadan Cadde, ar, مطار آدم عدي الدولي) , formerly known as Mogadishu International Airport, is an international airport serving Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. I ...
, the German
GSG 9 , formerly (), is the police tactical unit of the German Federal Police ''(Bundespolizei (Germany), Bundespolizei)''. The state police (''Landespolizei'') maintain their own tactical units known as the ''Special Deployment Commando, Spezialein ...
special forces stormed the aircraft in the early hours of 18 October local time, killing 3 terrorists and freeing all hostages. *On December 11, 1978, Lufthansa was the victim of a major heist (robbery) at John F. Kennedy International Airport. The
Lufthansa heist The Lufthansa heist was a robbery at New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport on December 11, 1978. An estimated $5.875 million (equivalent to $ million in ) was stolen, with $5 million in cash and $875,000 in jewelry, ma ...
led to Lufthansa losing about $5 million American Dollars. * On 12 September 1979, a hijacking attempt occurred on board a Lufthansa Boeing 727 on a flight from Frankfurt to Cologne, but the perpetrator quickly surrendered. * Three hijackings occurred in due course in early 1985: ** On 27 February, a Boeing 727 was hijacked en route a Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to
Damascus )), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , ...
. Two perpetrators forced the pilots to divert the aircraft (with 35 other passengers on board) to Vienna International Airport, where they surrendered. ** On 27 March, another 727 was hijacked, this time on a flight from Munich to Athens. A man demanded the pilots to divert to Libya. During a fuel stop at Istanbul, the aircraft was stormed and the perpetrator arrested. ** Only two days later, a mentally ill person on board a Lufthansa Boeing 737-200 on a flight from Hamburg to London demanded to be taken to Hawaii instead. * On 11 February 1993, Lufthansa Flight 592 from Frankfurt to Addis Ababa via Cairo with 94 passengers and 10 crew members was hijacked during the first leg by 20-year-old Nebiu Zewolde Demeke, who forced the pilots to divert the Airbus A310 (registered D-AIDM) to the United States, with the intent of securing the right of asylum there. Demeke, who had been on the flight to be deported back to his native Ethiopia, surrendered to authorities upon arrival at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. No passengers or crew members were harmed during the 12-hour ordeal.


Criticism


Employment relations

Relations between Lufthansa and their pilots have been very tense in the past years, with many strikes occurring, causing many flights to be cancelled, as well as major losses to the company. A major dispute between Lufthansa and the pilot's union has been settled after nearly five years and overall 14 strikes in December 2017. Without taking into account the €9 billion bailout from the German government, Lufthansa cut 31,000 jobs in the COVID19 years. During the 2022 collective bargaining, ver.di said that Lufthansa's wage offer meant real wage losses for employees and called on around 20,000 ground workers in Germany to go on warning strikes.


Germanwings crisis management

Germanwings was a subsidiary of Lufthansa. Carsten Spohr, Lufthansa's CEO, oversaw the Germanwings Flight 9525 incident, "the darkest day for Lufthansa in its 60-year history", when pilot Andreas Lubitz intentionally flew an aircraft into a mountain, murdering 149 passengers. Nonetheless, damage control by Spohr and his team was poor according to several sources, as compared to other CEOs in the face of a major accident, with contradictory information given about the mental health and the airworthiness of the co-pilot Andreas Lubitz. It was revealed that Lubitz suffered from a severe case of depression and mental disorders and had intentionally crashed Germanwings Flight 9525 into the French Alps, killing all 150 aboard. Spohr had misleadingly said the co-pilot "was 100% airworthy without any restrictions, without any conditions".


GDS surcharge

On 1 September 2015, Lufthansa implemented a 16 euro surcharge on Global Distribution System bookings. The surcharge is payable unless tickets are purchased directly from the airline's website, or at its service centres and ticket counters at the airport. In a statement responding to Lufthansa's strategy, Amadeus, a travel technology company, said the new model would make "comparison and transparency more difficult because travellers will now be forced to go to multiple channels to search for the best fares. For the period between 1–14 September, the airline experienced a 16.1% drop in revenue, indicating to some that the new fee backfired, although the airline maintains the statement that the decrease was due to the pilot strike, and "other seasonal effects".


Deportation flights

Pro-migration activists from Germany have criticised Lufthansa for performing deportation flights on behalf of the German government. In 2019, 4,573 people were deported on their planes, while their subsidiary Eurowings performed 1,312 deportations. This totals more than 25% of deportations in Germany in 2019. At least two deportees perished during transport.


Treatment of Nazi-era past

Lufthansa has been criticized for lack of transparency about the use of more than 10,000
forced laborers Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, violence including death, or other forms of ex ...
, many of them children, by its predecessor company, Deutsche Luft Hansa, during World War II.


Ghost flights

Lufthansa operated 18,000 empty or near-empty flights in winter 2021–2022 to avoid losing take-off and landing rights at major airports.


Alleged collective punishment of visibly Jewish passengers

In 2022, the company allegedly engaged in collective punishment of visibly Jewish passengers. After a small minority of Jewish passengers did not comply with COVID masking rules on a flight from New York to Frankfurt, the company barred over a hundred visibly Jewish passengers from a connecting flight to Budapest. Lufthansa called in dozens of armed federal police to enforce its policy. A supervisor from Lufthansa explained to passengers that "everyone has to pay for a couple" as "It's Jews coming from JFK. Jewish people who were the mess, who made the problems." The video of Lufthansa supervisor's statement has been compared to the treatment of Jews during the Holocaust. Lufthansa confirmed that it barred a group of passengers from the flight. German police reacted with rage when passengers asked "why do you hate us?" and used the word Nazi. The German Federal Police confirmed they were called to "presence" at the scene, and in response to later questions said that "Lufthansa called us and said that some of this group from JFK were not following the rules" and that they "did not make any decision at all about who could fly and who could not. As the police even if we did think that their decision was discriminatory, as the police we can’t then make the decision about who can and who cannot fly." The
American Jewish Committee The American Jewish Committee (AJC) is a Jewish advocacy group established on November 11, 1906. It is one of the oldest Jewish advocacy organizations and, according to ''The New York Times'', is "widely regarded as the dean of American Jewish org ...
stated that "Banning ALL Jews from a flight because of an alleged mask violation by some Jewish passengers is textbook
antisemitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...
from Lufthansa". German MP
Marlene Schönberger Marlene Schönberger (born 6 December 1990) is a German politician of Alliance 90/The Greens who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag since the 2021 German federal election. Education Schönberger holds a master's degree in political s ...
said that if the reports are true, then "there must be consequences" as "Excluding Jews from a flight because they were recognizable as Jewish is a scandal. I expect German companies in particular to be aware of anti-Semitism." Lufthansa denied its actions were antisemitic saying that "We consider the claim of anti-Semitism to be unwarranted and without merit". Lufthansa later said it wishes to investigate the incident internally. Lufthansa was condemned by US envoy Deborah Lipstadt who described Lufthansa's anti-Semitism as "unbelievable", and stated that her office was in contact with the German government over the incident that involved US citizens. In August 2022, as a result of the incident, Lufthansa adopted the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism and appointed a senior manager to prevent antisemitism and discrimination.


See also

* Air transport in Germany *
List of airlines of Germany This is a list of current airlines of Germany. Scheduled airlines Charter airlines Cargo airlines See also * Airline codes * List of airports in Germany * List of defunct airlines of Germany * List of airlines of Europe References {{ ...


References


Footnotes


Citations


Bibliography

* * *


External links


Official website
* {{Authority control Lufthansa Group Airlines established in 1953 1953 establishments in West Germany Airlines of Germany Association of European Airlines members Companies listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange Multinational companies headquartered in Germany Companies based in Cologne German brands Star Alliance German companies established in 1953 Antisemitism in Germany