Deutsche Lufthansa AG (ISIN: DE0008232125) ( ) is one of the largest airlines in Europe in terms of overall passengers carried , and the flag carrier of Germany. The name of the company is derived from Luft (the German word for "air"), and Hansa (after Hanseatic League, the powerful medieval trading group).

The airline is the world's fifth largest airline in terms of overall passengers carried, operating services to 209 destinations in 81 countries. Together with its partners Lufthansa services around 410 destinations. It has the sixth-largest passenger airline fleet in the world, when combined with Lufthansa CityLine, Air Dolomiti, Eurowings, Germanwings, Augsburg Airways, Contact Air, and SWISS, operating 531 aircraft.

Lufthansa corporate headquarters is in Cologne, with its main base and primary traffic hub at Frankfurt International Airport in Frankfurt am Main with a second hub at Munich International Airport.

Lufthansa is a founding member of Star Alliance, the world's largest airline alliance. Star Alliance was formed in 1997 together with Thai Airways, United Airlines, Air Canada and Scandinavian Airlines System. The Lufthansa Group operates more than 500 aircraft and employs worldwide 105,261 people of 146 nationalities (31 December 2007). In 2007, 83.1 million passengers flew with Lufthansa Group including all subsidiaries.

History

In the years prior to World War II, the company pioneered routes to the Far East and across the North Atlantic and the South Atlantic, using a fleet of mostly Dornier, Junkers, Heinkel, Focke-Wulf and other German-designed aircraft. After the outbreak of war in 1939, Lufthansa was only able to maintain service to neutral countries. Early in the war, along with the Italian Transcontinental Airline (Linee Aeree Transcontinentali Italiane, or LATI), the company competed vigorously in South America. However, all service was suspended by Lufthansa following Germany's defeat in 1945.

Lufthansa was recreated on 6 January 1953 as Aktiengesellschaft für Luftverkehrsbedarf (Luftag) and was renamed Deutsche Lufthansa Aktiengesellschaft on August 6 1954. The "new" Lufthansa of 1953 is not the legal successor of the Lufthansa founded in 1926 and which existed during and before World War II. On 1 April 1955 Lufthansa resumed scheduled service within Germany. International operations started on 15 May 1955, with flights to points in Europe, followed by service to New York on 8 June using Lockheed Super Constellations. South Atlantic routes were resumed in August 1956.