LTU International
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. Use of the LTU brand ceased in 2009, and LTU itself was dissolved by April 2011.
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 had been headquartered in Düsseldorf since 1961. Over the years, LTU rose to become one of the biggest and most renowned German leisure time airlines and operated worldwide charter flights from many German airports, but mainly from its traditional main hub at Düsseldorf.In 1983, a Munich-based subsidiary called LTS Lufttransport Süd was founded, which had a similar livery, but with blue instead of red. It was renamed LTU Süd in 1987 and got a new livery closer to the familiar red LTU livery. In 1998 LTU Süd was completely incorporated into LTU.
LTU also operated sister companies in Spain and Austria. Their traditional red and white livery barely changed over the years, thus becoming a recognizable trademark in the German charter flight business.
The airline was owned by March 2007 by Intro Verwaltungsgesellschaft and Marbach Beteiligung und Consulting and had 2,892 employees before the Air Berlin merger.
Takeover by Air Berlin
In March 2007, Air Berlin took over LTU International, creating the fourth-largest airline group in Europe in terms of traffic. Combined, 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.In April 2007, shortly after the Air Berlin takeover, a new livery was presented. It maintained the traditional red and white corporate colors, but the body was now much more white.
On 1 May 2007, LTU operated the first Arctic & North Pole Sightseeing Flight from continental Europe in aviation history for their charter customer . The flight took 12h 55m 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. The flight was filmed for an episode of PilotsEYE.tv of former subsidiary LTU SüdLTU 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.
Cessation
Air Berlin announced in 2008 that the trademark LTU would no longer be used. All flights were rebranded as Air Berlin. 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. On 27 October 2017, Air Berlin themselves ceased operations.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
By the time Air Berlin took over LTU in March 2007, their fleet contained the following aircraft:Fleet history
All aircraft operated by LTU until March 2007:| 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 |
| 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 |
| Fokker F28 Fellowship | 5 | 1969 | 1974 | Including two prototypes |
| 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 was the only German airline that operated the Lockheed TriStar.
- LTU offered some dedicated seasonal sightseeing flights without landing around the North Pole in partnership with travel agency Deutsche Polarflug.
- LTU was the air company featured in the CBS video of the Wham! Hit Club Tropicana featuring George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley as air crew.