Lufthansa on Monday plans to retrace the original routes flown by its predecessor airline exactly 100 years ago.
As part of its centennial celebrations, the carrier will operate special flights from Berlin to Cologne and Zurich, mirroring service offered by Deutsche Luft Hansa on its first official day in business – April 6, 1926. Lufthansa dates its founding to Deutsche Luft Hansa’s formation that same year, though there is no legal connection between the two.
The festivities will start Monday morning when two long-haul aircraft, a Boeing 787-9 and an Airbus A350-900, depart for Berlin from Frankfurt and Munich, respectively. On board will be hundreds of Lufthansa Group employees and their partners, along with aviation journalists and influencers.
Both jets sport Lufthansa’s 100th anniversary livery, an oversized white crane against dark blue, which the carrier has been applying to several different aircraft types over the last few months.
A celebration will take place after both airplanes land at Berlin Brandenburg Airport, with around 600 people expected to attend. Then, at 3 p.m., they will depart again, the A350 for Cologne and the 787 for Zurich.
In 1926, Deutsche Luft Hansa operated from the now-closed Berlin Tempelhof Airport, and flew much smaller aircraft. A Fokker Grulich F II was used for the inaugural flight to Zurich and a Dorner Komet III D-580 operated the first connection to Cologne.
According to Lufthansa, a newlywed couple took the trip to Zurich, and only one passenger flew to Cologne.
Lufthansa will also give a nod to the cities and towns where the original flights made stopovers. The flight to Zurich will pass over Halle, Erfurt, and Stuttgart while en route, and the flight to Cologne will pass over Magdeburg.
