Lufthansa is the largest airline carrier in Germany. It’s corporate headquarters is in Cologne and the primary traffic hub in Frankfurt am Main. The company was established in 1926 and was named Deutsche Luft Hansa Aktiengesellschaft – derived from the German word “Luft”, meaning “air”, and Hansa, after Hanseatic League- the powerful medieval trading group.
Nowadays, the company serves a wide variety of destinations in Africa, Europe, Asia, North and South America.
In order to increase its profits, apart from its core activities, Lufthansa also offers travel agency management (Thomas Cook), domestic transport (Lufthansa CityLine and Lufthansa Regional), cargo transport (Lufthansa Cargo), technical support (Lufthansa Technik), IT counseling for aviation (Lufthansa Systems), transport insurance (Delvag), air crew training (Lufthansa Flight Training), managing the company that suppliers the food on board (LSG Sky Chefs), etc.
An innovation that the company introduced into the aviation market is the possibility to choose the seat on board of the plane. In order to book the seat, one needs to have an electronic ticket called Lufthansa etix which provides its owner with extra options such as individual check-in 23 hours before the flight and printing the boarding pass (online) – which will speed up the boarding procedure.
It is worth mentioning that the low-cost Lufthansa airlines were using the aircraft Boeing 737 and Boeing 737-100. Nowadays its fleet comprises over 300 aircraft (Airbus, Avro, Boeing, Bombardier and Embraer) – this is undoubtedly an impressive number.
In summer 2003 Lufthansa opened a new terminal in Munich in order to relieve the traffic in its main hub in Frankfurt, which proved the increasing popularity of this carrier. Introducing new offers and services as well as its numerous extra activities ensured that Lufthansa has got a high position in the industry.
An aspect that differentiates Lufthansa from other airlines is the fact that since 2004 its passengers have the Internet access on board (Lufthansa was the first airline to introduce this option) which is very important for those who are scared of flying as now they are able to divert their attention from their fears. Besides, a lot of people need the Internet access in order to work so this is a perfect solution for them.