LTU International

Infobox_Airline
airline=Lufttransport-Unternehmen
logo=Ltu_logo.svg
logo_size=
fleet_size=26
destinations=75
IATA=LT
ICAO=LTU
callsign=LTU
parent=airberlin
founded=1955
headquarters=
key_people=Jürgen Marbach, Peter Oncken (both CEOs)
hubs=
Düsseldorf International Airport
Munich International Airport
Berlin-Tegel International Airport
frequent_flyer=topbonus
lounge=LTU Lounge
alliance=
slogan=
website=http://www.ltu.de/

LTU Lufttransport-Unternehmen GmbH is an airline based in Düsseldorf, Germany and a subsidiary of Air Berlin. The initials stand for the German phrase "LuftTransport-Unternehmen" ("air transport enterprise"). It operates scheduled services on medium and long-haul routes, as well as charter services. Its main bases are Düsseldorf International Airport and Munich International Airport. In November 2007 LTU opened the third base Berlin-Tegel International Airport.cite news | title= Directory: World Airlines | work= Flight International | page= 107 | date= 2007-04-03] As communicated by Air Berlin in July 2008, the brand name "LTU" is no longer in use. Fact|date=October 2008

History

LTU was established in May 1955 as Lufttransport Union and started operations on October 20, 1955, in Frankfurt. It adopted its present name in 1956 and has been based in Düsseldorf since 1961.

LTU runs very popular USA routes from its Düsseldorf hub and directly competes on some of them with Lufthansa, Germany's flag carrier. LTU did run well frequented services from Düsseldorf to Beijing, Chengdu and Shanghai, but they were dropped. Fact|date=February 2007

The airline was owned (at March 2007) by Intro Verwaltungsgesellschaft (55%) and Marbach Beteiligung und Consulting (45%) and has 2,892 employees.

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 take over was driven by the prospect of branching into long-haul operations and the chance to establish a stronger presence at Düsseldorf International Airport. LTU will retain its name on its leisure routes, but routes to the United States and China will be branded by Air Berlin. [http://www.traveldailynews.com/new.asp?newid=39703&subcategory_id=53]

On May 1, 2007 LTU operated the first Arctic & North Pole Sightseeing Flight from continental Europe in aviation history for their charter customer [http://www.polarflug.de/ 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 (to add to Düsseldorf and Munich) at Berlin-Tegel International Airport in October 2007 when it has based a single Airbus A330-200 there to launch flights to Bangkok, Punta Cana and Varadero. [cite news | title= LTU base | work=Airliner World | page=9 | date=August 2007]

Destinations

Africa

*South Africa
**Cape Town (Cape Town International Airport)
*Mauritius
**Mauritius (Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport) [ends October 26, 2008]
*Kenya
**Mombasa (Moi International Airport)
*Namibia
**Windhoek (Windhoek Hosea Kutako International Airport)

Asia

*Thailand
**Bangkok (Suvarnabhumi Airport)
**Phuket (Phuket International Airport)
*Maldives
**Malé (Malé International Airport)

North America

*Mexico
**Cancún (Cancún International Airport)
*Cuba
**Holguín (Frank País Airport)
**Varadero (Juan Gualberto Gómez Airport)
*Jamaica
**Montego Bay (Sangster International Airport)
*Dominican Republic
**Samaná (Samaná El Catey International Airport)
**Puerto Plata (Gregorio Luperón International Airport)
**Punta Cana (Punta Cana International Airport)
*Canada
**Vancouver (Vancouver International Airport) [ends October 15, 2008]
*United States
**Fort Myers (Southwest Florida International Airport)
**Miami (Miami International Airport)

Polar

*North Pole (Polar Flight) (charter on behalf of [http://www.polarflug.de/ Deutsche Polarflug] )

Fleet

The LTU International fleet consists of the following aircraft (at February 2008):

As of February 2008, the average age of the LTU International fleet is 6.6 years ( [http://www.airfleets.net/ageflotte/LTU.htm] ).

On April 20 LTU received its 12th long-haul jet a Airbus A330-200.The registration will be D-ALPI. In receiving this jet, LTU have introduced a new livery. After Air Berlin has bought LTU, from the 27 aircraft in the fleet only 7 of them will remain in the LTU colours.

References

External links

* [http://www.airberlin.com/site/index.php?LANG=eng]
* [http://www.ltu.de/ LTU]
* [http://www.ltu.com/ LTU International]
* [http://www.polarflug.de/ Deutsche Polarflug - operated by LTU]