LT LTU Frequent-flyer program topbonus Key people Helmut Weixler (CEO) Founded 1955 Fleet size 26 | LTU LTU Destinations 56 (as of March 2007) Headquarters Düsseldorf, Germany Ceased operations 2011 Parent organization Air Berlin | |
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Hubs Berlin Tegel Airport (from October 2007)
Düsseldorf Airport
Munich Airport | ||
LTU, legally LTU Lufttransport-Unternehmen GmbH, was a German leisure airline headquartered in Düsseldorf. It operated medium and long-haul routes and maintained hubs at Düsseldorf Airport, Munich Airport and Berlin-Tegel Airport. LTU was acquired by Air Berlin in 2007. While its brand name has been left unused since 2009, LTU itself was dissolved by April 2011.
Contents
- Ltu we miss you hd
- Early years
- Ownership by Air Berlin
- Destinations
- Fleet in 2007
- Fleet history
- Trivia
- References
Ltu we miss you hd
Early years
LTU was established in May 1955 as Lufttransport Union and started operations in Frankfurt. It adopted its present name in 1956 when it operated charter flights. LTU has been headquartered in Düsseldorf since 1961. The airline was owned at March 2007 by Intro Verwaltungsgesellschaft (55%) and Marbach Beteiligung und Consulting (45%) and had 2,892 employees before the Air Berlin merger.
Ownership by Air Berlin
In March 2007, Air Berlin took over LTU International, creating the fourth largest airline group in Europe in terms of traffic. Between them, the airlines carried 22.1 million passengers in 2006. The takeover was driven by the prospect of branching into long-haul operations and the chance to establish a stronger presence at Düsseldorf Airport. For a period, LTU retained its name on its leisure routes, while routes to the U.S. and China immediately switched to Air Berlin branding.
On 1 May 2007, LTU operated the first Arctic & North Pole Sightseeing Flight from continental Europe in aviation history for their charter customer Deutsche Polarflug. The flight took 12h55m and the aircraft, an A330-200 took a group of 283 passengers from Düsseldorf via Norway, Svalbard, The North Pole, Eastern Greenland and Iceland back to Düsseldorf.
LTU opened a third long-haul base besides Düsseldorf and Munich at Berlin Tegel Airport in October 2007, basing a single Airbus A330-200 there to launch flights to Bangkok, Punta Cana and Varadero.
Air Berlin announced in 2008 that the trademark LTU would no longer be used. All flights have been branded as Air Berlin since then. The last known flight under LTU-callsign, but already in Air Berlin livery, was on 13 October 2009 from Montreal to Düsseldorf. As of April 2011, the AOC of LTU had been expired and the company itself was dissolved.
Destinations
Before being taken over by Air Berlin, LTU served 56 destinations in 22 countries on four continents during winter schedule season 2006/2007. Further destinations were available with codeshare partner Bangkok Airways.
Fleet in 2007
By the time Air Berlin took over LTU in March 2007, their fleet contained the following aircraft:
The average age of the LTU fleet was 6.7 years.
Fleet history
All aircraft operated by LTU until March 2007:
Trivia
LTU was the air company featured in the CBS video of the Wham Hit Club Tropicana featuring George Micheal & Andrew Ridgeley as air crew.