Lufthansa Italia S.p.A. was an Italian

airline An airline is a company that provides civil aviation, air transport services for traveling passengers or freight (cargo). Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or Airline alliance, alliances with other airlines ...

and a wholly owned subsidiary of the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

Lufthansa Group 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 second in Europe by p ...

headquartered in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

and based at

Milan–Malpensa Airport Milan Malpensa Airport "Silvio Berlusconi" is an international airport in Ferno, in the Province of Varese, Lombardy, Italy. It is the largest airport in northern Italy, serving Lombardy, Piedmont, and Liguria, as well as the Swiss canton of T ...

. Operations started on 2 February 2009 and ceased on 29 October 2011.Lufthansa press release: "Lufthansa launches new Lufthansa Italia brand"

History

Foundation

On 28 April 2008

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 ...

announced plans to commence intra-European flights out of

using six Embraer 195 aircraft from its subsidiary

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 ...

. On 26 November 2008 the new brand Lufthansa Italia was formed instead of the originally planned Air Dolomiti operations. Operations started on 2 February 2009 using the larger

Airbus A319-100 The Airbus A319 is a member of the Airbus A320 family of short- to medium-range, narrow-body, commercial passenger twin-engine jet airliners manufactured by Airbus. The A319 carries 124 to 156 passengers and has a maximum range of . Final assem ...

. The new subsidiary was established to allow Lufthansa to better tap into the lucrative North Italian market that was all but abandoned by

Alitalia Alitalia - Società Aerea Italiana S.p.A., operating as Alitalia (), was an Italian airline which was once the flag carrier and largest airline of Italy. The company had its head office in Fiumicino, in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital. ...

during a series of cutbacks. The airline's on board cuisine was aimed towards the Italian market, with Italian foods and drinks. For example, in business class, Italian espresso was served.

Shutdown

On 23 July 2011, Lufthansa reported in a press release that it would stop all Lufthansa Italia operations by 29 October 2011 as it had been proven too difficult to operate the Italian-based operations economically. As a replacement, the Lufthansa Group increased their flights from Italian destinations to their German hubs in Frankfurt and Munich instead. The last scheduled flight of Lufthansa Italia was LH3627 on 29 October 2011, which landed at 16:35, coming from

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

to Milan-Malpensa, which was flown on the Airbus A319-100 with the registration D-AKNJ. The former Lufthansa Italia aircraft have been transferred back to other Lufthansa Group airlines.

Destinations

The following cities were served by Lufthansa Italia prior to its shutdown on 29 October 2011:

Fleet

The Lufthansa Italia fleet consisted of the following aircraft. All aircraft were given names of Italian cities, such as 'Bologna' and 'Varese', and were painted in a modified Lufthansa livery while retaining their German registrations.

References

External links

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German version
Italian version linked from English page {{Portalbar, Italy, Companies, Aviation Lufthansa Defunct airlines of Italy Airlines established in 2008 Airlines disestablished in 2011 Italian companies established in 2008 2011 disestablishments in Italy Former Star Alliance affiliate members