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A Boeing (left) and an Airbus side by side at the celebration at Schönefeld Airport.
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Lufthansa Celebrates Its Anniversary: The First Flights Took Off 100 Years Ago.
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The Boeing 787-9 “Berlin” passenger aircraft is sprayed with water upon arrival at BER.
One hundred years ago, Lufthansa’s first aircraft took off on scheduled flights. On April 6, 1926, two planes took off from Berlin-Tempelhof Airport—one bound for Zurich, the other for Cologne—and the anniversary was celebrated in Berlin on Easter Monday.
“Driven by a pioneering spirit and passion, it all began here in Berlin,” said Jens Ritter, CEO of Lufthansa Airlines. To mark the anniversary, two special flights were scheduled to retrace the historic routes to Zurich and Cologne—though unlike a century ago, today’s aircraft no longer need to make stopovers. One of the two aircraft was christened “Berlin.” The Boeing 787-9 and an Airbus A350-900 took off from Berlin’s BER Airport on Easter Monday. A ceremony with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) is planned for April 15 in Frankfurt am Main.
Air travel connects people and continents, said Berlin’s Governing Mayor Kai Wegner. If more people connected with one another and got to know each other better, “then there would probably be fewer wars, fewer deaths, and fewer bombs,” said the CDU politician. That is why he would like to see more air travel. Wegner also expressed the hope that Lufthansa would expand its services from Berlin and that there would be more flight connections. “Perhaps not just to Munich and Frankfurt.” Those are good, but a few other cities are also important to Berliners. “Because yes—BER is our gateway to the world.”