Quick Facts
Anniversary	Lufthansa turns 100 on April 6, 2026
Original Flights	April 6, 1926: Berlin-Tempelhof → Zurich (Fokker Grulich F II) and Berlin → Cologne (Dornier Komet III)
2026 Recreation	Boeing 787-9 (Berlin–Zurich) and Airbus A350-900 (Berlin–Cologne)
Special Livery	Blue with oversized white crane on five aircraft types (A320, A350, A380, 747, 787)
Passengers	400+ Lufthansa Group employees and partners
Fleet Today	~280 aircraft serving 200+ destinations worldwide

On April 6, 1926, a Fokker Grulich F II lifted off from Berlin-Tempelhof and pointed its nose toward Zurich. A Dornier Komet III headed for Cologne. Those two flights — bumpy, slow, unpressurised, and deeply brave — were the first commercial services of Deutsche Luft Hansa. A century later, the airline that grew from those fabric-winged biplanes is recreating the exact same routes.

On Easter Monday, April 6, 2026, a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner will depart Berlin for Zurich and an Airbus A350-900 will fly Berlin to Cologne. Both aircraft wear a special centennial livery — deep Lufthansa blue with an oversized white crane — and carry more than 400 passengers, all Lufthansa Group employees and their partners invited to mark the occasion.

The symbolism is deliberate. Where the Fokker F II carried perhaps a dozen passengers in an open cockpit at 100 mph, the 787 will carry hundreds in pressurised comfort at 560 mph. The route is the same. Everything else has changed.

From Tempelhof to the World

Lufthansa’s century spans the entire arc of modern aviation — and modern Germany. The original Luft Hansa was dissolved after World War II and refounded in 1953 as a West German carrier. It survived the Cold War, reunification, deregulation, 9/11, two Gulf wars, a pandemic, and the collapse and rebirth of the European airline industry.

Today it sits at the centre of one of the world’s largest airline groups, with Swiss, Austrian, Brussels Airlines, and Eurowings under its umbrella. Five aircraft types — the A320, A350, A380, Boeing 747, and 787 — now carry the anniversary livery across the global network.

Flightradar24 is tracking the anniversary fleet in real time, and aviation photographers have been staking out European airports for weeks to catch the liveried aircraft. For plane spotters, it’s become one of the most photographed events of 2026.

A Century in the Air

Not many companies survive a hundred years. Fewer survive a hundred years in aviation, an industry that has killed more airlines than it has created. Lufthansa endured because it adapted — from propellers to jets, from state ownership to privatisation, from point-to-point flying to the hub-and-spoke model that now funnels passengers through Frankfurt and Munich.

The anniversary flights won’t set any speed records. They won’t open new routes or debut new aircraft. They’ll simply follow the same path a brave pilot traced through turbulent skies a century ago — and that’s exactly the point. In aviation, the most powerful statement isn’t always about what’s new. Sometimes it’s about proving you’re still here.

Sources: Lufthansa Group Newsroom, Flightradar24, Aviation A2Z, The Flight Club