Lufthansa prepares to launch new regional carrier

Lufthansa is gearing up to launch its newest airline, a Munich-based carrier named City Airlines. 

The news comes as the German carrier plans to strengthen its European routes.

City Airlines was founded in  April 2022, as part of the CityLine2 project, and will operate a “modern and economical” Airbus fleet, although the exact type has yet to be announced.

On its now live new website, the carrier said it intends to fly from Munich to “major European cities and remote destinations”, focusing on short and mid-haul routes from mid-2023. It will operate alongside Lufthansa’s existing regional subsidiary, Cityline.

For the reasons behind this new regional subsidiary, a Lufthansa Group spokesperson said to LARA that Lufthansa Airline had lost a “significant share of the hub-contour market” in recent years, and that “stable and sustainable solutions [were] needed to make hub-contract traffic viable for the future.”

“As a reliable short- and medium-haul provider, Lufthansa CityLine stands for precisely this strength and capability. With the goal of developing structures for a strong, competitive cont airline for the Lufthansa hubs, the “CityLine 2″ project was launched at Lufthansa CityLine in April 2022,which is necessary for the implementation of a new AOC,” the spokesperson added.

All current job postings will be placed on the new website in summer 2023, with the subsidiary looking for “a highly professional team of colleagues with different skills and backgrounds.”

The spokeperson also noted that ground positions had been advertised since February 22, and that “on-board personnel will be hired at a later date for operational flight operations.” Cockpit personnel will not be hired until June 30 2023.