Lufthansa celebrates 100th anniversary
Europe’s biggest airline is celebrating its milestone anniversary and opening a new visitor centre.
Frankfurt/Main (dpa) – The German airline stock company “Deutsche Luft Hansa Aktiengesellschaft” was founded exactly one hundred years ago in Berlin. While the present-day company Deutsche Lufthansa AG’s traditions in the areas of aviation and technology do go back to the group’s predecessor, it is not legally connected to the original organisation that had links to National Socialism.
The air transport group took its anniversary as an occasion to modernise its fleet and open a new visitor and conference centre. Visitors to the Hangar One venue that is located right next to the company headquarters at Frankfurt Airport, will be able to admire two historic propeller aircraft: a Lockheed Super Star from 1958 and a Junkers Ju 52 from 1936. In addition, a special livery design was applied to six modern planes, featuring the crane symbol and the number 100, as well as the dates 1926 and 2026.
Lufthansa is the biggest and highest revenue air transport group in Europe and has a staff of around 104,000. Including its most recent minority shareholding in Ita from Italy, the group currently operates some 840 aircraft. Its next goal is to take over the Portuguese airline Tap. This would make Lufthansa the world’s fourth biggest airline, after the Big Three US airlines.
