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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LUFTHANSA CITYLINE

by Heiko Reuter

Hardly any other airline has changed its name as often as the birthday child. During its forty years' existence the name was altered half a dozen times. It started as OLT, a small air taxi operator, developed into the Regional Airline DLT and then it joined the Lufthansa Group. In the past it has flown through many economic storms. New shareholders came along with the new names. Most of the employees stayed faithfully with the airline, no matter what the name happened to be.

However, the times when OLT and DLT were operating on the verge of financial disaster have finally passed. CityLine has been flourishing under the wings of the Kranich. The regional airliners have been associated with Lufthansa for twenty years. In 1978 Lufthansa bought into the-then DLT. In April of that year DLT's 33 seater Shorts SD330 took off carrying Lufthansa flight numbers for the first time. They operated short haul flights between Bremen-Amsterdam, Bremen-Copenhagen and Hanover-Amsterdam. 1989 Lufthansa acquired the majority of DLT shares. 1992 DLT was re-named Lufthansa CityLine, and one year later Lufthansa took over the remaining shares.

At this time the regional carrier was already in the middle of a quantum leap. Since the beginning of the 90's it can boast an impressive rate of growth. In 1990, still during the DLT times, more than one million passengers were being transported for the first time. Figures in 1998 are expected to be four and half times as many. The route network is constantly expanding. It now includes 76 destinations in 27 European countries.

The CityLiners are proud: Currently no other subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group is managing a higher yield on turnover. During the birthday celebrations on 28 October at the Cologne/Bonn Airport Lufthansa CEO Jürgen Weber stated that CityLine shows the strongest growth of all Lufthansa Group companies. CityLine Managing Director Karl-Heinz Köpfle had good reason to rejoice "In the anniversary year CityLine is flying on the sunny side." What is more: According to Köpfle 1998 will ìbring new record figures throughout.î The figures for the first six months, i.e. seat load factor plus 4.8 percentage points, number of passengers plus 17.5 per cent, profit before taxes plus 289 per cent ñ give rise to the assumption that wish and reality are very closely linked indeed.

There is a reason for this steep rise: CityLine is ideally positioned in the market, which is mainly increasing in cross border traffic. When compared internationally this airline is also ahead of many competitors. In the European League of big regional carriers it is fighting for the top position ñ it occupies equal positions with the Swiss Crossair and KLM UK.

And Lufthansa CityLine is increasing further. During the celebrations in Cologne/Bonn, CityLine presented its 50th aircraft, a Canadair Regional Jet. The fleet now comprises 32 aircraft of this type. Ten more were ordered recently. An order has also been placed for ten of the new 70seater version CRJ700. CityLine is currently negotiating with Fairchild Dornier over a big contract for the planned 728JET-Family. It might replace the entire present CityLine Fleet, if the specifications are as required, a newsletter quoted Mr Köpfle and Mr Weber.

From page 20 of FLUG REVUE 1/99