Deutsche Lufthansa AG, best known as Lufthansa Group, is an aviation company based in Germany. Its flagship and founding airline, Lufthansa Airlines, serves as its national flag carrier. Lufthansa publicly trades its stock, representing a significant player in the aviation industry.
The airline ranks second in Europe for passengers carried and is the largest in Europe and the fourth largest globally by revenue. Reports indicate that Lufthansa Airlines transported over 122.5 million passengers during 2023.
LH established itself in 1953 and began operations in April 1955. In addition to its own brand, Lufthansa Airlines, the Lufthansa Group owns several other carriers. These include Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Discover Airlines, Eurowings, and Swiss International Air Lines.
The group also holds several aviation-related subsidiaries. These include Global Load Control, Lufthansa Consulting, Lufthansa Flight Training, Lufthansa Systems, and Lufthansa Technik. Most recently, it has added ITA Airways to its armoury.
Lufthansa Airlines is one of the five founding members of the Star Alliance. The alliance, the world’s largest, was formed in 1997.
Star Alliance & Lufthansa
Star Alliance is a global airline alliance based in Frankfurt, Germany. Established on May 14, 1997, it was the first global airline alliance. Initially, it comprised five airlines across three continents: United Airlines, Scandinavian Airlines, Thai Airways International, Air Canada, and Lufthansa.
Today, Star Alliance has 25 member airlines, operating a combined fleet of over 5,000 aircraft. Together, they serve over 1,290 airports in 195 countries with over 19,000 daily departures.
Based on an April 2024 report, Star Alliance was the world’s largest airline alliance by market share. It held 17.4%, which was 3.7% more than its closest rival, SkyTeam, with 13.7%. Oneworld ranked third, holding just over 11%.
The two-tier reward program, called Silver and Gold, provides incentives including priority boarding and upgrades. Member airlines enjoy the usual benefits of being in such an alliance, such as sharing airport terminals (co-location), and many of them paint their aircraft in the alliance’s livery.
Subsidiary flag-carrier airlines of Lufthansa Group
Whether by design or chance, the biggest aviation names under Lufthansa are also the flag carriers of their respective nations. A flag carrier receives special rights or privileges from the government of its registered country for international operations. Some of these include:
Swiss International Air Lines
On 22 March 2005, Lufthansa Group confirmed its plan to take over Swiss, starting with a minority stake (11%) in a new company set up to hold Swiss shares called Air Trust.
Lufthansa gradually integrated Swiss operations with its own in late 2005, and completed the takeover on 1 July 2007. Swiss joined Star Alliance and became a member of Lufthansa’s Miles & More frequent flyer program on 1 April 2006.
Austrian Airlines
Austrian Airlines had already been a member of Star Alliance since 26 March 2000. But in June 2008, Merrill Lynch advised the Austrian government to sell the formerly debt-ridden airline to a foreign company.
Lufthansa, Air France-KLM, Royal Jordanian, Air China, Turkish Airlines, Aeroflot, S7 Airlines, and Singapore Airlines expressed interest in acquiring Austrian Airlines. However, Lufthansa, Air France-KLM, and S7 emerged as the final bidders.
On November 13, 2008, state holding company ÖIAG announced that LH had selected. The German airline planned to acquire a 41.6% stake in Austrian Airlines for €366,268.75, with plans to eventually purchase 100% of the airline, initially through privatization and later by buying up freely traded shares.
Austrian Airlines CEO Alfred Ötsch and ÖIAG chairman Peter Michaelis faced heavy criticism for informing the company about the €500 million debt only after the deal became binding.
Michaelis rejected calls for a new tender process and faced blame for the situation, losing his shareholder rights, while Ötsch resigned on January 29, 2013.
The European Commission launched an investigation into the acquisition in July 2009 but eventually approved Lufthansa to complete the acquisition of Austrian Airlines in September of the same year.
Brussels Airlines
On 15 September 2008, Lufthansa announced its plan to acquire a 45% stake in Brussels Airlines with an option to acquire the remaining 55% from 2011 onwards. As a part of this deal, Brussels Airlines would join Star Alliance (which eventually occurred on 9 December 2009).
On 15 June 2009, Brussels Airlines announced that the European Commission had approved Lufthansa to take a minority share in Brussels Airlines and, as a result of this clearance, Brussels Airlines was able to join Star Alliance. Lufthansa purchased 45% of the company in 2009 and acquired the remainder in January 2017.
ITA Airways
Another flag carrier, ITA Airways is Lufthansa’s most recent acquisition. On 19 January 2023, the company Group submitted a bid to the Italian Government to commence the purchase of a minority share in ITA Airways.
In the same month, the Italian government and Lufthansa signed a letter of intent for the sale of a minority stake, clearing the way for exclusive negotiations with the German aviation group. The European Commission also granted its approval of the acquisition on 3 July 2024.
The agreement was made a reality on 17 January 2025, when Lufthansa Group acquired 41% of ITA through a capital increase with the option to purchase the remaining shares over an extended period and integrate the airline within the larger Lufthansa Group.
From 2029 Lufthansa Group can exercise the option to purchase the remaining 10% and make ITA a wholly owned subsidiary. The airline will leave SkyTeam (the world’s second-largest air alliance) and join Star Alliance in 2026 or 2027.
Lufthansa on the stock exchange
In January 2025, Lufthansa Group has a market capitalisation of €7.23B with 1.2B Lufthansa stocks outstanding. The company was a state-owned enterprise until 1994. Deutsche Lufthansa AG stock has been publicly traded on all German stock exchanges since 1966.
In addition to floor trading, it is also traded electronically using the Xetra system (Xetra is the primary market for trading German stocks and the leading European market for exchange-traded funds or EFTs). It is part of the DAX index and is listed in the Frankfurt Stock Exchange’s Prime Standard.
Those interested in trading Lufthansa equities and the DAX index can do so with online trading brokers such as T4Trade.
免责声明: This material is for general informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice or an investment recommendation. T4Trade is not responsible for any data provided by third parties referenced or hyperlinked in this communication.
