German powerhouse the Lufthansa Group is sketching out plans for its sixth airline to come on stream in the first half of 2023.
It’s likely the new carrier will secure its own Air Operator Certificate and run on very similar lines to the group’s Munich-based regional subsidiary Lufthansa CityLine. Group CEO Carsten Spohr confirmed the development at a recent press conference: “We plan to establish a kind of second Lufthansa CityLine that will be ready to start operations in early 2023. It serves various purposes. First, it will offer an opportunity to employ some 250 captains that were active with Germanwings, which has now been dissolved, and which would [otherwise] risk unemployment.”
Lufthansa Group
“The second motive is a more complex one that has a new regulation binding around it. Lufthansa and pilot union Cockpit [the European Cockpit Association] have agreed that CityLine can no longer operate aircraft over 75 seats [capacity] from 2026.”
