Lufthansa history

On 6 August 1954, Luftag acquired the name and logo of the liquidated Deutsche Lufthansa for DM 30,000 (equivalent to €38000 today), thus continuing the tradition of a German flag carrier of that name.

The ambitious project succeeded: on April 1, 1955 two Convair airplanes took off from Hamburg and Munich to commence scheduled air services.

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.

On June 17, 1959 the first OLT flight takes off from Emden airfield.

Lufthansa introduced the 707 on its North Atlantic routes in March 1960.

Lufthansa began flying Boeing 707 passenger jets on its international routes in 1961.

The airline established service to Nigeria in 1962 and later that year began service to Johannesburg, South Africa.

By 1963, the airline, initially limited in its public relations efforts, had become a major purveyor of West Germany's image abroad.

Despite the heavy investment required for the airline’s expansion, Lufthansa was able to declare its first profitable year in 1964.

Interestingly, it became the launch customer of the Boeing 737 on February 19th, 1965, after it placed an order for 21 units of the twinjet.

The airline received its initial 737-100 on December 28th, 1967, to become the first carrier outside the United States to launch a new Boeing aircraft.

In 1968, the Boeing 737 medium-haul jet joined the Lufthansa fleet.

Lufthansa joined a maintenance pool called ATLAS in 1969.

The wide-body era for Lufthansa started with a Boeing 747 flight on 26 April 1970.

The airline experienced considerable problems with German air traffic controllers who staged a “go-slow” from May to November 1973.

1976: First Airbus A300, a mostly German-made airliner, enters the company's fleet.

Lufthansa heist, theft on December 11, 1978, of some $5.8 million in cash and jewels from the air cargo building of the German airline Lufthansa at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City—at the time the biggest cash theft to have taken place in the United States.

In 1979 Lufthansa and Swissair became launch customers for the Airbus A310 with an order for twenty-five aircraft.

The Lufthansa Story by Joachim Wachtel, Cologne, Lufthansa German Airlines, 1980.

Ruhnau assumed his post on July 1, 1982 in a smooth transition of leadership.

In 1983 the airline commissioned its first A-310 and has since expressed interest in the consortium’s A-320 and A-340 jumbo jet projects.

In 1985 the Federal government held 74.31% of Lufthansa, 7.85% was held by government agencies, and the remaining 17.84% was held by private interests.

Women also conquered the cockpits at Lufthansa with the training of the first two female pilots in 1986.”

In 1987 Lufthansa, together with Air France, Iberia, and Scandinavian Airlines, 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 airline did not fly to Berlin until October 28th, 1990, amid the split between the two Germanys.

The company was hemorrhaging at the time amid fierce competition and the first decline in European air travel in history in 1991--with the Gulf War a major catalyst for the drop.

Starting in mid-1992, Weber began working feverishly to bring the company's costs in line.

By 1993, the German government still held 51.6 percent of Lufthansa.

In October 1994 three Avro RJ85s enter the fleet.

On 19 May 1995, for the first time in its history, Lufthansa CityLine carries over 10,000 scheduled passengers on one single day.

Lufthansa CityLine delivers its last Fokker 50 to Air Iceland at a ceremony held at Contact Air's Saarbrücken hangar at the beginning of August. Thus, all of the airline's turboprop aircraft, which had been operated exclusively by Contact Air since 1996, are sold.

On 18 May 1997, Lufthansa, Air Canada, Scandinavian Airlines, Thai Airways International, and United Airlines formed Star Alliance, the world's first multilateral airline alliance.

In August 1998 the Avro RJ85 fleet is fitted with a new Flight Management System.

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.

Profits rose 9 percent to $620 million in 2000, even in the face of rising fuel costs.

On 6 December 2001, Lufthansa announced an order for 15 Airbus A380 superjumbos with 10 more options, which was confirmed on 20 December.

Net profit was EUR 717 million for 2002.

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.

On 17 May 2004, Lufthansa became the launch customer for the Connexion by Boeing in-flight online connectivity service.

On 22 March 2005, Swiss International Air Lines was purchased by Lufthansa's holding company.

On 6 December 2006, Lufthansa placed an order for 20 Boeing 747-8s, becoming the launch customer of the passenger model.

In September 2009, Lufthansa purchased Austrian Airlines with the approval of the European Commission.

In May 2010, it became only the second Europe-based carrier to operate the A380, joining Air France in the superjumbo club.

In 2011, Lufthansa introduced the new check-in interface which guides passengers through the check-in procedure in three simple steps at check-in terminals and online while putting to test Automated Check-in and “Self Bag Drop” terminals.

In 2012, Lufthansa announced a restructuring program called SCORE to improve its operating profit.

In September 2013, Lufthansa Group announced its biggest order, for 59 wide-body aircraft valued more than 14 billion euros at list prices.

During the course of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, part of the fleet was branded "Fanhansa".

In June 2015, Lufthansa announced plans to close its small long-haul base at Düsseldorf Airport for economic reasons by October 2015.

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.

On 4 December 2017, Lufthansa became the first European airline to receive the Skytrax 5 star certification.

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 and an additional 20 Airbus A350-900 for its own and the group's fleet replacement and expansion.

On 19 March 2020 Lufthansa cancelled 95 percent of all flights due to a travel ban because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Revenue, result and employee figures 2021.