Lufthansa City Airlines First Routes Announced

City Airlines, an upcoming airline to launch by Lufthansa Group debuting in summer 2024, has confirmed its first destinations.

The airline is expected to debut from Munich with Berlin, Hamburg, Bremen, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Hanover, Birmingham, Bordeaux and Manchester all featuring.

While this network is substantial for just a launch, the airline plans to increase this shortly, with further destinations expected to be added within Europe.

Lufthansa City Airlines has been a long time in the making, and it comes with a vision to enhance efficiency across the group for the long term.

As part of the airline’s primary mission, it’ll connect European cities towards key hubs of Munich and Frankfurt, where passengers can transfer onto long-haul or generally mainline Lufthansa flights. The Group essentially calls this an airline that will feed traffic.

After thoroughly assessing its network, Lufthansa Group believed that Munich and Frankfurt, while important hubs for the group, needed to be strengthened. City Airlines is a means to strengthen these locations and enhance the market share of the Lufthansa Group across Europe.

By debuting with the Airbus A319, the airline is launching an aircraft it is familiar with, and these aircraft will sport a partially revised livery with the title reading ‘Lufthansa City’.

The new airline slated to launch in the coming months has already acquired its Air Operators Certificate; this is a necessary step in getting in the air. At this stage, a date for service commencement has yet to be publicly confirmed.

A220 Order Makes It Possible

Lufthansa Group ordered 40 Airbus A220-300s with options for a further 20 back in 2023. As part of this commitment, the new airline will boost its efficiency.

The airline plans to launch with a fleet of Airbus A319 aircraft. Lufthansa says the first two of four have already been painted in the new livery. However, the move towards the Airbus A220 will eventually mark a new era for this new airline.

The first delivery of the Airbus A220-300, per the airline’s release at the time of ordering, is scheduled for 2026. Once the first delivery occurs, the airline will progressively take on the aircraft over a multi-year period.

The Lufthansa Group was one of the first customers for the A220 and has successfully operated the aircraft in its SWISS route network ever since. We are delighted by this testimony of confidence from our long-standing partner and customer. 

Christian Scherer, Chief Commercial Officer and Head of Airbus International.