LTU International

LTU
IATA ICAO Callsign
LT LTU LTU
Founded 1955
Ceased operations 2009 (merged with Air Berlin)
Hubs
Frequent-flyer program topbonus
Fleet size 26 (as of March 2007)
Destinations 56 (as of March 2007)
Parent company Air Berlin
Headquarters Düsseldorf, Germany
Key people Helmut Weixler (CEO)
Website ltu.com

LTU, legally incorporated as 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.[1] Use of the LTU brand ceased in 2009, and LTU itself was dissolved by April 2011.[2]

History

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.[3] 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.[4]

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.[5]

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,[4] basing a single Airbus A330-200 there to launch flights to Bangkok, Punta Cana and Varadero.[6]

Air Berlin announced in 2008 that the trademark LTU would no longer be used. All flights have been branded as Air Berlin since then.[7] 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.[2]

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

Fleet in 2007

LTU Airbus A330-200

By the time Air Berlin took over LTU in March 2007, their fleet contained the following aircraft:

LTU International Fleet, March 2007[8]
Aircraft Total Orders Passengers Notes
C Y Total
Airbus A320-200 10 — 24 144 168 one additional aircraft operated by subsidiary LTU Austria
Airbus A321-200 4 — 27 177 204
Airbus A330-200 8 2 18 305 323
Airbus A330-300 3 — 18 343 361
British Aerospace BAe 146-300 1 — 0 104 104 wet leased from WDL Aviation
Total 26 2

The average age of the LTU fleet was 6.7 years.

Fleet history

Refurbished de Havilland DH.104 Dove in historic livery celebrating LTU's 50th anniversary at Mönchengladbach Airport.
Lockheed L-1011-100 TriStar D-AERN in typical red roof livery taking off at home base Düsseldorf Airport.
Interior design of LTU's Lockheed TriStar.

All aircraft operated by LTU until March 2007:

LTU Fleet[9]
Aircraft Total Years Introduced Years Retired Notes
Airbus A320-200 12 1999 2009
Airbus A321-200 4 2001 2009
Airbus A330-200 8 2001 2009 Plus two orders (see above)
Airbus A330-300 7 1994 2009
Boeing 747-200 1 1991 1991 Wet leased from Evergreen International Airlines
due to delayed delivery of first McDonnell Douglas MD-11
Boeing 757-200 14 1984 2004 Operated with subsidiaries LTE and LTS
Boeing 767-300ER 5 1989 2002 Operated with subsidiary LTS
Bristol 170 1 1957 1961
de Havilland DH.104 Dove 1 1957 1958 Another example still operating sightseeing flights in historic LTU livery
Douglas DC-4 2 1958 1960
Fokker F27 Friendship 5 1958 1974 Including two prototypes (PH-FDO/NVF)
Fokker F28 Fellowship 5 1969 1974 Including two prototypes (PH-ZAA/ZAB)
Lockheed L-1011-100 10 1973 1996 One fleet was written off due to fire in 1991 during maintenance
Lockheed L-1011-500 3 1980 1996
McDonnell Douglas MD-11 4 1991 1998
Sud Aviation SE 210 Caravelle 10R 5 1967 1979
Sud Aviation SE 210 Caravelle III 2 1965 1968
Vickers VC.1 Viking 5 1955 1963 First aircraft in fleet

Trivia

  • The initials LTU stand for the German phrase LuftTransport-Unternehmen which translates to "air transport enterprise".
  • LTU offered some dedicated seasonal sightseeing flights without landing around the North Pole in partnership with Deutsche Polarflug.
  • LTU was the air company featured in the CBS video of the Wham Hit Club Tropicana featuring George Micheal & Andrew Ridgeley as air crew.

References

  1. ↑ "Kontakt." LTU International. Retrieved on 21 June 2009. "LTU International Airways Flughafen Düsseldorf, Halle 8 D40474 Düsseldorf"
  2. 1 2 http://www.aero.de/news-12421/Air-Berlin-vollendet-LTU-Integration.html
  3. ↑ "About LTUKommunikation Wissenschaft Archived 2014-01-22 at the Wayback Machine.." Air Berlin. Retrieved on 21 June 2009.
  4. 1 2 "Directory: World Airlines". Flight International. 2007-04-03. p. 107.
  5. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-02-04. Retrieved 2008-03-13.
  6. ↑ "LTU base". Airliner World. August 2007. p. 9.
  7. ↑ aero.de: „Air Berlin stellt Nutzung der Marke LTU ein“ (German) (29. Juli 2008) Archived February 15, 2009, at the Wayback Machine.
  8. ↑ "LTU's Fleet". airfleets.net. March 2007. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
  9. ↑ "LTU's Aircraft". ltu-flugzeuge.de. Retrieved March 4, 2015.

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