Lufthansa Group expands airline portfolio through strategic acquisitions

In recent years, Lufthansa's growth strategy has included acquiring stakes in several European airlines. For instance, it acquired a 25% stake in Austrian Airlines in 1997 and later purchased Swiss International Air Lines in 2005. These moves strengthened its position within Europe while also expanding globally through alliances like Star Alliance.

"Lufthansa said it would shut down CityLine and integrate operations into Lufthansa City Airlines," which was established to take over some short-haul routes previously operated by CityLine. However, this decision led to legal challenges from staff representatives concerned about competition and wage reductions.

Eurowings operates as a low-cost carrier within the group with hubs outside Germany under its subsidiary Eurowings Europe. Meanwhile, Air Dolomiti connects Northern Italy with Germany via Munich.

The group's flagship airline Deutsche Lufthansa offers extensive medium- and long-haul services worldwide. Similarly, SWISS International Air Lines operates out of Zurich and Geneva with a fleet exceeding 110 aircraft serving over 100 locations globally.

Brussels Airlines focuses on Africa and Europe with around fifty aircraft while Edelweiss Air serves leisure destinations across more than thirty countries from Zurich Airport.

Discover Airlines caters to travelers across Europe, Africa North America Caribbean regions using Frankfurt Munich airports as bases for operations employing approximately two thousand staff members currently operating twenty-seven aircraft including Airbus A320s A330s models among others

SunExpress jointly owned by Turkish-German entities flies primarily tourist corridors between Turkey-Europe carrying twelve million passengers annually using seventy-five Boeing737 planes

Cargo operations handled separately under brands like AeroLogic co-owned DHL began functioning back June29th2009 alongside existing entity formed November30th1994 named simply "LufthansaCargo"

Finally new addition ITAAirways will see forty-one percent acquisition worth €325million ($338million) finalized early2025 enabling further Italian market penetration especially transatlantic routes endorsed EU regulatory bodies