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German Airways Fluggesellschaft GmbH, operating as German Airways and formerly named ''Luftfahrtgesellschaft Walter'' or ''LGW'' for short, was a German
regional airline A regional airline is a general classification of airline which typically operates scheduled passenger air service, using regional aircraft, between communities lacking sufficient demand or infrastructure to attract mainline flights. In North ...
headquartered in
Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...
. Originally LGW was an independent provider of scheduled and chartered low-volume passenger flights. After years of cooperation with
Air Berlin Air Berlin PLC & Co. Luftverkehrs KG (), branded as airberlin or airberlin.com was a major German airline. At its peak, it was Germany's second-largest airline, as well as Europe's tenth-largest airline in terms of passengers carried. It was h ...
, it eventually became a subsidiary of Air Berlin in 2017. After the collapse of Air Berlin it was purchased by
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 ...
in October 2017 and became a unit of the group's low-cost carrier
Eurowings Eurowings GmbH is a German low-cost carrier headquartered in Düsseldorf and a wholly owned subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group. Founded in 1996, it serves a network of domestic and European destinations and formerly also operated some long-haul ...
. Zeitfracht Group completed the purchase of LGW from Lufthansa on 1 April 2019 and renamed it in early 2020. The contract with
Eurowings Eurowings GmbH is a German low-cost carrier headquartered in Düsseldorf and a wholly owned subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group. Founded in 1996, it serves a network of domestic and European destinations and formerly also operated some long-haul ...
was terminated in April 2020 and LGW filed for insolvency. In 2022 Summer,
KLM KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, legally ''Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij N.V.'' (literal translation: Royal Aviation Company Plc.), is the flag carrier airline of the Netherlands. KLM is headquartered in Amstelveen, with its hub at nearby Amste ...
wet-leased Germany Airways' airplanes to provide extra capacity on its network. In 2023 the agreement with KLM was extended.


History


Independent company

Luftfahrtgesellschaft Walter was founded in 1980 by Bernd Walter, the owner of a flying school at
Dortmund Airport Dortmund Airport is a minor international airport located east of Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It serves the eastern Rhine-Ruhr area, the largest urban agglomeration in Germany, and is mainly used for low-cost and leisure charter flight ...
.Information about Luftfahrtgesellschaft Walter at the Aero Transport Data Bank
/ref> Initially, LGW offered on-demand charter and
air taxi An air taxi is a small commercial aircraft that makes short flights on demand. In 2001 air taxi operations were promoted in the United States by a NASA and aerospace industry study on the potential Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) an ...
services. During the 1990s, the airline grew a network of scheduled domestic flights.LGW timetable front covers, at timetableimages.com
/ref> At that time, it had 25 employees and the
Dornier 228 The Dornier 228 is a twin-turboprop STOL utility aircraft, designed and first manufactured by Dornier GmbH (later DASA Dornier, Fairchild-Dornier) from 1981 until 1998. Two hundred and forty-five were built in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany. In 19 ...
, with its capacity of 19 passengers, was the largest airliner in its fleet.


Partnership with Air Berlin

In 2007, LGW entered into a partnership with
Air Berlin Air Berlin PLC & Co. Luftverkehrs KG (), branded as airberlin or airberlin.com was a major German airline. At its peak, it was Germany's second-largest airline, as well as Europe's tenth-largest airline in terms of passengers carried. It was h ...
, which at the time was the second largest German airline. Effective 12 October of that year, LGW flights to
Düsseldorf Airport Düsseldorf Airport (german: link=no, Flughafen Düsseldorf, ; until March 2013 ''Düsseldorf International Airport''; ) is the international airport of Düsseldorf, the capital of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is about north ...
and
Berlin Tegel Airport Berlin Tegel "Otto Lilienthal" Airport (german: link=no, Flughafen Berlin-Tegel „Otto Lilienthal“) was the primary international airport of Berlin, the federal capital of Germany. The airport was named after aviation pioneer Otto Lilienth ...
were sold via the Air Berlin booking engine. In 2008, Air Berlin added the De Havilland Dash 8-400 to its fleet. The ten aircraft of that type were
leased A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the user (referred to as the ''lessee'') to pay the owner (referred to as the ''lessor'') for the use of an asset. Property, buildings and vehicles are common assets that are leased. Industrial ...
to LGW and operated on regional routes. Subsequently, LGW discontinued its independent corporate identity. It no longer offered any chartered services, but operated scheduled flights on behalf of Air Berlin, using Air Berlin flight numbers and branding. The website ''lgw.de'' was shut down and replaced with a redirect to ''airberlin.com''. On 2 March 2009, Air Berlin notified the
Federal Cartel Office The Federal Cartel Office (, ; BKartA) is Germany's national competition regulatory agency. First established in 1958, BKartA comes under the authority of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action. The agency is headquartered ...
that it would become the controlling shareholder of LGW. As LGW staff did not have a
collective agreement A collective agreement, collective labour agreement (CLA) or collective bargaining agreement (CBA) is a written contract negotiated through collective bargaining for employees by one or more trade unions with the management of a company (or with an ...
, salaries were considerably lower than at Air Berlin. To cut costs, Air Berlin transferred a large number of its staff to LGW (especially those whose fixed-term contracts had expired). By the end of 2011, LGW had 110 employees. By early 2013, they had grown to 480. Since that year, LGW also employed jet pilots, as a number of
Embraer 190 The Embraer E-Jet family is a series of four-abreast narrow-body short- to medium-range twin-engine jet airliners designed and produced by the Brazilian aerospace manufacturer Embraer. The E-Jet was designed as a complement to the preceding E ...
aircraft were transferred to the airline from
Niki __NOTOC__ Niki may refer to: People * Niki (given name) * NIKI (singer), Indonesian singer and songwriter * Niki DeMar, American singer * Niki Etsuko (1928–1986), Japanese author of mystery fiction Places * Niki, Hokkaido, a town in Japan * Ni ...
(another Air Berlin subsidiary), the first of which arrived on 14 March and left the fleet in November 2013. By spring 2015, LGW increased their fleet of De Havilland Dash 8-400s from 12 to 17.LGW ch-aviation.com - Luftfahrtgesellschaft Walter
retrieved 22 November 2015
In May 2017, Air Berlin announced plans to buy Luftfahrtgesellschaft Walter outright, having held a controlling stake since 2009.


Sale to Lufthansa

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 ...
bought LGW in 2017 as part of Air Berlin's bankruptcy proceedings.austrianaviation.net - "Niki to be history by year's end"
(German) 25 October 2017
After Air Berlin ceased operations on 27 October 2017, LGW started
wetlease Aircraft leases are leases used by airlines and other aircraft operators. Airlines lease aircraft from other airlines or leasing companies for two main reasons: to operate aircraft without the financial burden of buying them, and to provide tempora ...
operations for
Eurowings Eurowings GmbH is a German low-cost carrier headquartered in Düsseldorf and a wholly owned subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group. Founded in 1996, it serves a network of domestic and European destinations and formerly also operated some long-haul ...
, taking over parts of the wetlease agreement previously provided by its parent for the Lufthansa subsidiary. In addition to its existing fleet of Dash 8-Q400 aircraft, it received 13 Airbus A320-family aircraft and started hiring crews in November 2017. The acquisition was closed in January 2018 after receiving approval from the
European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...
on 21 December 2017. In late 2018, all LGW
Airbus A320 family The Airbus A320 family is a series of narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air France. The first member of the famil ...
aircraft were moved to other companies within the Eurowings network.http://www.austrianaviation.net/detail/lgw-beendet-das-jetzeitalter-erneut/ austrianaviation.net - "LGW again ends the jetage" , date= 8 January 2019


Sale to Zeitfracht Group and rebranding

In January 2019, it was reported that Lufthansa planned to sell LGW to ''Zeitfracht'', which already owns German ACMI and charter airline German Airways (formerly branded WDL Aviation). Zeitfracht had already purchased parts of Air Berlin's maintenance division. The deal was completed on 1 April 2019, following the approval of supervisory authorities and the fulfillment of customary conditions. The takeover also marked the beginning of a longer-term lease agreement between LGW and Eurowings. In May 2019, LGW announced it would replace all of its De Havilland Dash 8-400s with newer
Embraer 190 The Embraer E-Jet family is a series of four-abreast narrow-body short- to medium-range twin-engine jet airliners designed and produced by the Brazilian aerospace manufacturer Embraer. The E-Jet was designed as a complement to the preceding E ...
s from late 2019. These aircraft will be operated for
Eurowings Eurowings GmbH is a German low-cost carrier headquartered in Düsseldorf and a wholly owned subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group. Founded in 1996, it serves a network of domestic and European destinations and formerly also operated some long-haul ...
as part of a long-term lease. In March 2020, Zeitfracht announced a rebranding for LGW which is to become German Airways operating within the ''German Airways'' branding alongside sister company
WDL Aviation German Regional Airlines GmbH & Co. KG, operating under the German Airways brand and formerly named ''WDL Aviation'', is a German charter and wet lease aircraft operator, headquartered at Cologne Bonn Airport, and part of the Zeitfracht Group ...
.airliners.de - "LGW and WDL get new names"
(German) 11 March 2020
In April 2020, the company filed for
insolvency In accounting, insolvency is the state of being unable to pay the debts, by a person or company ( debtor), at maturity; those in a state of insolvency are said to be ''insolvent''. There are two forms: cash-flow insolvency and balance-sheet i ...
with plans to restructure due to the cancellation of
Eurowings Eurowings GmbH is a German low-cost carrier headquartered in Düsseldorf and a wholly owned subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group. Founded in 1996, it serves a network of domestic and European destinations and formerly also operated some long-haul ...
' wetlease contract for their entire Bombardier DHC-8-400 fleet in the wake of the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
.airliners.de - "Luftfahrtgesellschaft Walter files for insolvency"
(German) 22 April 2020


Destinations

As of January 2019, German Airways operated European routes on behalf of
Eurowings Eurowings GmbH is a German low-cost carrier headquartered in Düsseldorf and a wholly owned subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group. Founded in 1996, it serves a network of domestic and European destinations and formerly also operated some long-haul ...
with a focus on
Düsseldorf Airport Düsseldorf Airport (german: link=no, Flughafen Düsseldorf, ; until March 2013 ''Düsseldorf International Airport''; ) is the international airport of Düsseldorf, the capital of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is about north ...
, where most aircraft were based. This contract was terminated in April 2020.


Fleet


Current fleet

As of July 2023, the joint German Airways fleet consists of the following aircraft:planespotters.net - LGW
retrieved 10 March 2020
germanairways.com - Fleet
retrieved 10 March 2020


Historical fleet

Previously, LGW operated the following aircraft types under its own brand or on behalf of other airlines:


References


External links

* {{Lufthansa Defunct airlines of Germany Airlines established in 1980 Airlines disestablished in 2020 1980 establishments in West Germany Companies based in North Rhine-Westphalia Companies based in Düsseldorf Lufthansa German companies disestablished in 2020 German companies established in 1980