Lufthansa CityLine

GmbH (; ) is a type of Juridical person, legal entity in German-speaking countries. It is equivalent to a (Sàrl) in the Romandy, French-speaking region of Switzerland and to a (Sagl) in the Ticino, Italian-speaking region of Switzerland. It is a ...

is a German regional airline with its headquarters on the grounds of Munich Airport. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of

Lufthansa Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), trading as the Lufthansa Group, is a German aviation group. Its major and founding subsidiary airline Lufthansa German Airlines, branded as Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. It ranks List of largest airlin ...

and maintains hubs at

Frankfurt Airport Frankfurt Airport ( ) , is Germany's busiest international airport by passenger numbers, located in Frankfurt, Germany's fifth-largest city. Its official name according to the German Aeronautical Information Publication is Frankfurt Main Airpor ...

and Munich Airport, from where it operates a dense domestic and European network on behalf of its parent company.

History

Early years

The airline was founded as ''Ostfriesische Lufttaxi (OLT)'' in 1958 and became Ostfriesische Lufttransport (OLT) in 1970 - which existed until 2013 as a separate airline - in

Emden Emden () is an Independent city (Germany), independent town and seaport in Lower Saxony in the north-west of Germany and lies on the River Ems (river), Ems, close to the Germany–Netherlands border, Netherlands border. It is the main town in t ...

. It was reorganised and renamed as '' DLT Luftverkehrsgesellschaft'' mbH on 1 October 1974 and began cooperation with Lufthansa in 1978 with short-range international routes. By 1989, all operations were on behalf of Lufthansa. In March 1992, DLT became a wholly owned subsidiary of Lufthansa and was renamed Lufthansa CityLine. Lufthansa CityLine employs 2,332 people, of whom 664 are cockpit crew, 849 cabin crew and 819 work in the technical and administrative areas as of 31 December 2011. Lufthansa placed an order on 17 April 2007 for 30 Embraer E190/ E195 and 15 Bombardier CRJ900 aircraft to directly replace CityLine's fleet of

BAe 146 The British Aerospace 146 (also BAe 146) is a short-haul and regional airliner that was manufactured in the United Kingdom by British Aerospace, later part of BAE Systems. Production ran from 1983 until 2001. Avro International Aerospace manu ...

and Avro RJ aircraft. The last Avro RJ85 took off from

Cologne Bonn Airport Cologne Bonn Airport () is an international airport in north-western Germany. It serves the country's fourth-largest city Cologne, as well as Bonn, the former capital of West Germany. With approximately 12.4 million passengers passing through i ...

on 27 August 2012 as LH1985.

Development since 2014

In late 2014, parent company

announced it would begin transferring eight of its Airbus A340-300 aircraft to CityLine. After reconfiguration to a high-density configuration, these aircraft would be owned by CityLine and operated by CityLine pilots but wet-leased back to Lufthansa and serviced by Lufthansa cabin crews starting in 2015 for use on leisure routes. The first destinations to be served by the new Bombardier CRJ-700s which left CityLine's fleet by March 2015. In October 2017, a new labour agreement between Lufthansa and its pilot unions was reached. As part of this agreement, the wetlease operations of Lufthansa CityLine on behalf of Lufthansa, consisting of eight

Airbus A340 The Airbus A340 is a long-haul, long-range, wide-body passenger airliner that was developed and produced by Airbus. In the mid-1970s, Airbus conceived several derivatives of the Airbus A300, A300, its first airliner, and developed the A340 qu ...

s, were gradually terminated.airliners.de - "Brussels Airlines to take off on long-haul for Eurowings
(German) 19 October 2017 As part of Lufthansa's new corporate design introduced in early 2018, Lufthansa Regional aircraft operated by Lufthansa CityLine also received the new livery, with the ''Lufthansa Regional'' titles being removed from the fuselage and replaced by ''Lufthansa''. In August 2020, Lufthansa CityLine handed back six Airbus A340-300 longhaul aircraft it operated for parent Lufthansa as part of their revised leisure route strategy.airliners.de
5 August 2020 In spring 2022, the airline transferred their last two remaining Embraer 195 to

Air Dolomiti Air Dolomiti S.p.A. L.A.R.E (''Linee Aeree Regionali Europee'') is an Italian regional airline, wholly-owned by Lufthansa. It is a member of Lufthansa Regional and has its head office in Dossobuono, Villafranca di Verona. Its main bases are at Mu ...

. In the same time, they were given operations of two Airbus A321P2F converted freighter aircraft on behalf of Lufthansa Cargo as well as several Airbus A319-100 aircraft to be flown for Lufthansa mainline.aerotelegraph.com - "Lufthansa Cityline bekommt Airbus A319"
(German) 12 Oktober 2018] Additionally, Lufthansa announced in 2023 that they would relocate several of their

A320neo The Airbus A320neo family is an incremental development of the A320 family of narrow-body airliners produced by Airbus. The A320neo family (''neo'' being Greek for "new", as well as an acronym for "new engine option") is based on the enhance ...

to Lufthansa CityLine.aerotelegraph.com - "Lufthansa CityLine receives A320neo"
(German) 9 February 2023 In June 2024, Lufthansa announced it would close Lufthansa CityLine in the foreseeable future, with plans to move all operations to Lufthansa City Airlines, stating agreements with unions prevent them from using larger aircraft at CityLine. In November 2024, the airline's labour union sued Lufthansa regarding the planned closure stating the similarity of the operations of its proposed successor. In October 2024, Lufthansa CityLine transferred all four of its Airbus A321-200/P2F to its sister company Lufthansa Cargo, for which it had them operated previously. In February 2025, Lufthansa Group announced it would go ahead with the shutdown of Lufthansa CityLine in the foreseeable future with current staff being relocated to its replacement Lufthansa City Airlines.

Corporate affairs

The airline's corporate headquarters are at the ''Flight Operations Center'' (FOC) at Munich Airport. In May 2013, it was announced that the management and administration offices of CityLine would be relocated from

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

. The move was completed as of September 2014. The airline was previously headquartered at

. In 1998, the airline moved its offices to the security area of that airport; several of its departments however were in Munich. In 2009, the airline moved its head office into the former Cologne/Bonn Airport administrative building.

Destinations

As of 2024, Lufthansa CityLine operates a network of 85 domestic and European destinations from the

hubs at

and Munich Airport.lufthansacityline.com - Route network
retrieved 8 November 2024

Fleet

Current fleet

, Lufthansa CityLine operates the following aircraft:

Historical fleet

Over the years, Lufthansa CityLine has operated the following aircraft types:

Accidents and incidents

*On 6 January 1993, '' Lufthansa Flight 5634'' from

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, which was carried out under the Lufthansa CityLine brand using a Contact Air Dash 8-300 ( registered D-BEAT), hit the ground 1800 metres short of the runway of Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport, resulting in the death of four out of the 23 passengers on board. The four crew members survived. The accident occurred after the pilot had to abort the final approach to the airport because the runway had been closed due to the aircraft ahead, a

Korean Air Korean Air Lines Co., Ltd. (KAL; ) is the flag carrier of South Korea and its largest airline based on fleet size, international destinations, and international flights. It is owned by the Hanjin, Hanjin Group. The present-day Korean Air tra ...

Boeing 747 The Boeing 747 is a long-range wide-body aircraft, wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2023. After the introduction of the Boeing 707, 707 in October 1958, Pan Am ...

, suffering a blown tire upon landing. *On 28 December 1999, a passenger on board ''Lufthansa Flight 5293'' from

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

, which was operated by Lufthansa CityLine using a Bombardier CRJ100 aircraft (registered D-ACJA), claimed to have a bomb on board and demanded the flight be diverted to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. The pilots convinced him to have a fuel stop at Düsseldorf Airport, where all passengers left the plane (many of them unaware of the hijacking attempt), and the perpetrator was arrested. *On 5 July 2014, ''Lufthansa Flight 1360'' from

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

Katowice Katowice (, ) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Katowice urban area. As of 2021, Katowice has an official population of 286,960, and a resident population estimate of around 315,000. K ...

, operated by Lufthansa CityLine using a Bombardier CRJ700 aircraft (registered D-ACPJ), landed on an unopened and under construction runway at Katowice Airport. The pilots performed a normal approach from the East in good conditions and visibility before landing on the closed runway. No one was hurt, and the aircraft later made a technical flight to land on the correct runway. The Polish State Commission on Aircraft Accidents Investigation made recommendations to add additional markings to the runway (in the form of red X shapes on the runway), and to modify the ATIS to include warnings about the closed runway. The CAT I ILS was disabled due to the construction, and the aircraft featured an older EGPWS that lacked a "Smart Landing" mode and high resolution map of the area which prevented it from informing the crew of the situation. During the approach, PAPI and threshold lights were set to maximum brightness. The incident is still being investigated by Polish authorities.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lufthansa Cityline Airlines of Germany European Regions Airline Association Airlines established in 1958 Lufthansa Companies based in Cologne 1958 establishments in West Germany