Lufttransport Süd


Lufttransport Süd, or LTS, was an airline based in Munich and it flew from May 1984 until it merged with LTU in 1998.

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Parent company LTU from Düsseldorf opened the subsidiary Lufttransport Süd AG & Co KG Fluggesellschaft in August 1983. LTS started with three Boeing 757s, which were soon transferred to yet another subsidiary LTE based in Palma de Mallorca. Soon after its inception, the blue LTS logo and paintjob were changed to a white top/red bottom paintjob with LTU Süd logo in order to more closely match that of its parent company.

Why was LTU Süd created?

LTU Süd was opened in order to operate much more cost efficient flights out of Munich with lower wage employees newly hired off the street. LTU mainline crews worked under very expensive labor contracts that could not be restructured unilaterally by the company. LTU Süd was a way to circumvent high labor costs by having its employees fly with completely different contracts than those already held by employees of LTU in Düsseldorf.
Another reason for operating separate airlines under one parent company was the fact that German law does not permit flight attendants to fly more than two different types of aircraft families. During fleet transition periods, however, airlines are allowed to have flight attendants qualified on up to three aircraft. At the time LTU Süd was opened, LTU already flew Tristar L1011s and MD11s. In 1994 LTU started acquiring A330-300s to replace the aging Tristars. It made perfect sense for LTU to operate LTU Süd with smaller more efficient 757/767 aircraft with a separate group of employees.
LTU intended for LTU Süd to fly European, African and Far-east destination out of Munich with 757s. After the 1988 recertification of ETOPS to be allowed to fly overwater past 180 minutes, LTU Süd acquired 767 aircraft in 1989 to fly across the Atlantic and the Far East. For the purpose of operating transatlantic flights out of DUS with the 767, LTU opened an additional crew domicile for LTU Süd at the LTU Halle 8 in DUS.
At its peak, LTU Süd operated up to six 767-300s and thirteen 757-200s. All LTU Süd flights were always marketed as LTU flights. With the restructuring of LTU, it was decided to go to an All-Airbus fleet. Both employee groups were eventually merged and LTU Süd was completely disintegrated at around 1997.
Similar business transactions were made by LTU's main rival – Condor. Condor opened Südflug in 1990 as a response to LTUs lower cost subsidiary LTU Süd. Südflug also flew 767-300s and 757-200s, while Condor Mainline flew DC10s simultaneously with much higher wage employees holding Lufthansa contracts. When the DC10s started to be retired, Südflug essentially was Condor. However, senior Condor employees holding Lufthansa contracts still work at Condor today. In yet another repetition of creating a "lower wage" subsidiary, Condor opened Condor Berlin in Berlin with an All-Airbus 320 fleet. Till this day, Condor still operates Condor Berlin with separate flying crews than those of Condor mainline.
Despite Air Berlin's acquisition of LTU, it still operates LTU flights with crews separate from those of Air Berlin's original company. Air Berlin already operated all its aircraft with separate crews stemming from all the airlines it previously purchased.

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