Twenties A pioneering era: from adventure to routine operations

Fly in open aircraft, in the dead of winter? Could such a thing really be possible? It just had to work. And the time was now: the beginning of the 1920s, right after the war. Politicians and journalists were the first to crouch on uncomfortable planks, air-cooled and surrounded by mail bags and parcels. The were real pioneers. But it wouldn t be long until they d be sitting in full-fledged passenger aircraft, equipped with heated cabins.

By now a number of a small aviation companies had sprung up in Germany. Their aircraft made wobbly trips, back and forth, from one city to another preferably along rail lines and during the day. Pilots didn t have radio contact with the ground yet. Only two airlines survived the all-out competitive battle: Deutscher Aero Llyod and Junkers Luftverkehr. For the subsidies-paying German state, however, this was still one too many. After the two joined forces to found Deutsche Luft Hansa AG on January 6, 1926, the flight path started to point upward. Thirties Growing trust: Further, faster and more comfortably

Experienced pilots, with thousands of flight kilometers under their belts, found themselves back at school: They squeezed into a tiny cockpit with blacked-out windows blocking any view to the outside. There pilots learned to fly by instruments alone, to fly under adverse weather conditions and at zero visibility. This was a giant step forward for aviation, passengers and mail. Airlines were better able to adhere to their timetables, even in fall and winter.

Flying lost its seasonal character. What s more: Larger aircraft could now fly longer routes and therein lay the future, not in the hop-and-skip-routes of the early years, which merely cost subsidy money. For Lufthansa, South America and the Far East now drew within reach. Fourties The war years: The fight for survival

Europe was in the grips of war one that was soon to escalate into a world war. The Reich s government obligated Lufthansa by law to provide services, transport flights and technical operations. All Lufthansa

documents, including the annual report, were stamped Secret! Despite all the difficulties, it was business as usual. Connections to neutral countries were particularly of great importance. That s were businessmen, diplomats and agents continued to fly: that s were post and information were exchanged. During the war years, timetables were always subject to changes at short notice. At the beginning of the decade, even Tempelhof, the airline s home airport, had to be evacuated for a time. And finally in 1945 came the over and out for Germany and for Lufthansa. A new beginning: Starting over with fresh spirit

Courage and drive were behind Luft- hansa s fresh start. But these were troubled and insecure times, the years of the Cold War. Almost at the same time, two companies named Deutsche Lufthansa took to the skies one on each side of the Iron Curtain.

American and British pilots sat beside their German colleagues in the cockpits of Lufthansa aircraft in the West, while Russian and German pilots shared the controls in the East. This setup was not meant to last. Yet Allied regulations in the former capital of the Reich did not allow the young, up-and-coming Federal Republic to fly through the air corridors to West Berlin, to Tempelhof and Tegel Airports. And as things turned out, this restriction was to remain in place for decades to come. Consequently, the new Lufthansa developed in new centers. First in Hamburg and Cologne, and then in Frankfurt. Jets replace propellers: Time savings on all routes

The principle is deceptively simple: Air is sucked into the engine, compressed and burned with kerosene; the backward thrust of the hot exhaust gases propels the aircraft forward. These new jet aircraft, with their higher speeds, increased capacities and improved ranges, revolutionized world air transport as never before.

Like night and day. And passengers were not the only ones to feel the difference. Starting in 1960, the fourengined Boeing B707s flew on Lufthansa s long-haul routes; The airline restructured its entire route network. Fares dropped as capacities rose sharply, especially on the North Atlantic routes. These were challenging times for the young company, the more so as the world was shaken by political turmoil in the early 1960s, and even found itself briefly on the brink of a new war.

Despite several crises: Flying in wide-body dimensions

Space. Breadth. Room to move. Everything was new and different aboard the wide-body jets, the Jumbos, which arrived at Lufthansa just in time to kick off the new decade.

Instead of just the one down the middle, two aisles now led along a much wider cabin, dispelling all notions of confinement and making service and communication much easier on long flights. A liberating feeling, a new era in aviation. But the joy wasn t to remain unadulterated for very long. Prices for crude oil, raw material for the kerosene so indispensable to flying, exploded. First in 1973 and then again in 1979 two oil crises.

This resulted in tur- bulences in the world economy, striking international civil aviation with consequences that were tough to deal with. Lufthansa s engineers, as well as aircraft and engine manufacturers, applied their combined expertise to reduce fuel con- sumption and were successful in their quest. A new awareness, a greater understanding in using our resources began to shape the collective thinking process. Global challenge: Competing for customers

The world was now on our doorstep, thanks to more nonstop connections and ever-denser route networks.

At the same time, air space had become more crowded, resulting in more time spent flying in holding patterns. The aircraft had evolved into a means of mass transport. Lufthansa was increasingly transforming itself into a competitive corporation with modern organizational structures: Its watchwords were now market orientation, a newly-designed corporate identity, more efficient structures, responsibility in environmental issues, employee communications. And at the end of the decade, the real- ization of a long-held dream dawned on the horizon: a reunited Germany and Lufthansa s return to its home town to Berlin. From airline to Aviation Group

Germany's reunification and Lufthansa's return to Berlin: The new decade got off to a most promising start. But then came a major crisis in the early 1990s, a dramatic phase that threatened the airline's very survival. Lufthansa sought alliances and cooperations, and eventually found its way with other airlines into the "Star Alliance," which was rapidly to become the industry leader. A "new," entirely restructured Lufthansa, fully privatized in 1997, now soared toward success. Lufthansa was fully prepared to take off for the new millennium. 2001

The Lufthansa Aviation Group equips itself for the new millenium, training its focus on innovation and quality. Placement of orders for 15 Airbus A380 megaliners charts the airline s path into the future. 2001-2005

Even during times of crisis in the aviation industry, Lufthansa remains on the ascent: With the Future European Operations programme, the airline reorganises its regional markets, while gaining new partner airlines to expand the Star Alliance global route network. Passengers enjoy greater comfort in a completely revamped Business Class with fast broadband Internet connectivity in the aircraft cabin. 2005

Lufthansa celebrates the 50th anniversary of the new Lufthansa following its postwar re-entry into the airline community. SWISS is integrated as an independent airline in the Lufthansa Group. Its integration consolidates Lufthansa s position among Europe s leading network carriers. 2006-2008

Lufthansa creates new perspectives for Germany's future as a business location: Lufthansa orders 20 Boeing 747-8s and is the launch customer for the aircraft. Preparations for the A380 include route proving with Airbus, a new A380 maintenance hangar and a new terminal area in Frankfurt. The Lufthansa Aviation Center becomes an architectural flagship. Lufthansa Cargo founds the cargo airline AeroLogic with DHL Express. Further partners strengthen the Star Alliance, which now encompasses 21 members.

Chronicle Moving moments in a company's lifetime: Lufthansa from infancy to the present-day. The first passengers use a ladder to climb into the Fokker-Grulich FII. Today's passengers check in on the Internet or with a WAP-enabled mobile phone...

1926:

Lufthansa owes its origins to "Deutsche Luft Hansa Aktiengesellschaft" (renamed "Lufthansa" in 1933), which is formed from a merger between "Deutsche Aero Lloyd" (DAL) and "Junkers Luftverkehr" on January 6. The new airline inherits its crane logo, designed by "Deutsche Luft-Reederei" in 1919, from DAL, the blue-and-yellow house colours from Junkers. It commences scheduled flights on April 6 with a fleet of 162 aircraft, of 18 different types. A flying expedition to China is the event of the year.

19271930:

Following its acquisition of shares in 1926 in the German-Russian "Dereluft" airline, which was founded in 1921, Lufthansa is influential in the founding of the Spanish Iberia, the Brazilian "Syndicato Condor" and the Chinese "Eurasia" airlines. Lufthansa opens the first trans-oceanic, scheduled airmail service across the South Atlantic. Between 1936 and 1938, it also experiments with scheduled air services across the North

1934:

Atlantic. 19391945: After substantial expansion of the route network in 1939including flights to Bangkok and Santiago de Chilewartime air services, except for a few European countries, are suspended. All flights are discontinued in 1945 and Lufthansa goes into receivership and is finally wound up and struck from the Berlin commercial register in 1965. The Federal Transport Minister sets up a working committee in 1951 to prepare for the resumption of air traffic in postwar Germany and entrusts the job of implementation to "Bro Bongers", the office headed by Hans M. Bongers, the traffic chief of the old Lufthansa in Cologne. A new company to run air services and named "Aktiengesellschaft fr Luftverkehrsbedarf" (Luftag) is founded in Cologne on January 6, 1953. The company changes its name to the more traditional "Deutsche Lufthansa Aktiengesellschaft" in 1954, and resumes scheduled flights on April 1, 1955. Lufthansa enters the jet age, initially on long-haul routes, with the arrival in the fleet of the Boeing 707. The last of the propeller-driven aircraft, a Vickers Viscount, is retired in 1971. Conversion to jet aircraft continues with the start of flights on mediumhaul routes with the Boeing 727 and, on short-haul, with the Boeing 737, the city jet largely fathered by Lufthansa. The wide-body era begins at Lufthansa with the delivery of its first Boeing 747 jumbo jet in 1970, later to be joined by the McDonnell-Douglas DC10 and the A300, the first of the

19511955:

1960:

19641976:

jets from the newly founded European aircraftmaker. 1990: Lufthansa resumes flights to Berlin 45 years after the end of World War Two following Germany's reunification. Lufthansa masters its worst-ever economic crisis with a sweeping rehabilitation programme. The airline, largely owned by the state, is privatised step by step. Its MRO, cargo and IT businesses are spun off as independent companies. Lufthansa, Air Canada, SAS, Thai Airways und United Airlines create the "Star Alliance", the world's first multilateral airline grouping, later to be joined by other carriers. The Lufthansa Aviation Group equips itself for the new millenium, training its focus on innovation and quality. Placement of orders for 15 Airbus A380 megaliners charts the airlines path into the future. Even during times of crisis in the aviation industry, Lufthansa remains on the ascent: With the Future European Operations programme, the airline reorganises its regional markets, while gaining new partner airlines to expand the Star Alliance global route network. Passengers enjoy greater comfort in a completely revamped Business Class with fast broadband Internet connectivity in the aircraft cabin. Lufthansa celebrates the 50th anniversary of the new Lufthansa following its postwar re-entry into the airline community. SWISS is integrated as an independent airline in the Lufthansa Group. Its

19921997:

1997:

19972001:

20022005

2005

integration consolidates Lufthansas position among Europes leading network carriers. 20062008 Lufthansa creates new perspectives for Germany's future as a business location: Lufthansa orders 20 Boeing 747-8s and is the launch customer for the aircraft. Preparations for the A380 include route proving with Airbus, a new A380 maintenance hangar and a new terminal area in Frankfurt. The Lufthansa Aviation Center becomes an architectural flagship. Lufthansa Cargo founds the cargo airline AeroLogic with DHL Express. Further partners strengthen the Star Alliance, which now encompasses 21 members.