LUFTHANSA
Beside its charter subsidiary Condor, Lufthansa was the only airline in Germany to operate the DC-10. Having an all-Boeing-fleet at the time the DC-10 was ordered the airline breaked with its purpose to buy only jets from the omnipotent manufacturer from Seattle. Four DC-10-30 were ordered on September 23rd, 1970 for low density overseas routes, especially those to South America. Later, the DC-10 was also assigned to the african, asian and australian routes and in some cases - where the A300s were to small - the DC-10 could also be seen on routes to the Middle East.
As soon as the first aircraft (D-ADAO on Novermber 12th, 1973) was delivered, Lufthansa placed an order for five more aircraft and in the middle of the 1970s, two options were converted, bringing Lufthansas DC-10 - fleet to 11 aircraft. A twelth aircraft, a DC-10-30F(CF) N112WA was leased in 1989 from World Airways for six months. Lufthansa operated also Condor's D-ADSO for more than a year.
After more than 20 years in service, the last DC-10 was phased out - its last regular service was the Frankfurt - Tel Aviv route. Most of the aircraft were phased out and stored in Arizona or Munich, Germany before they got the new colour scheme, only a few were seen in Lufthansas new "all-white livery".
As the european charter market was booming in the middle of the 1990s, three (not only two as widely known!) aircraft (D-ADGO , D-ADHO and D-ADJO) came back to fly for SABENA, later D-ADJO flew together with D-ADLO for Condor. These three aircraft went to Continental while the other eight were converted to DC-10-30AF for Gemini Air Cargo.
Today, Lufthansa is one of the world's ten largest air carriers and operates the ex DC-10 - routes with A340. The german flag carrier is still very proud of having operated the DC-10 for more than 20 years without trouble.
Following aircraft were operated by or for Lufthansa:
Registration | Aircraft | Fleetnr./Name | Operated from - to | Where is it now? |
D-ADAO | 47921/ 117 | Brave Bull Düsseldorf Leverkusen | 12.11.1973 - 06.1992 | -stored- |
D-ADBO | 47922/ 122 | Bochum Berlin | 15.01.1974 - 09.12.1990 and 01.07.1991 - 05.1993 | -stored- |
D-ADCO | 47923/ 123 | Frankfurt Augsburg | 11.02.1974 - 01.1994 | Gemini Air Cargo |
D-ADDO | 47924/ 129 | Hamburg Köln Duisburg | 15.02.1974 - 04.1994 | -stored- |
D-ADFO | 47925/ 166 | München Duisburg Fürth Hof | 14.11.1974 - 19.02.1994 | Gemini Air Cargo |
D-ADGO | 47926/ 170 | Bonn | 03.01.1975 - 01.1993 | Omni Air International |
D-ADHO | 47927/ 190 | Hannover | 28.02.1975 - 04.1994 | Omni Air International |
D-ADJO | 47928/ 192 | Essen | 10.03.1975 - 01.05.1994 and 1994 - 04.07.1994 | World Airways |
D-ADKO | 47929/ 196 | Stuttgart | 26.02.1975 - 17.09.1994 | -stored- |
D-ADLO | 46917/ 211 | Nürnberg | 01.12.1975 - 01.12.1994 | -stored- |
D-ADMO | 46965/ 245 | Dortmund | 09.12.1977 - 10.12.1992 and 11.10.1992 - 17.06.1993 | Gemini Air Cargo |
D-ADSO | 48252/ 342 | 02.1988 - 04.1989 | Omni Air International | |
N112WA | 47820/ 317 | 25.01.1989 - 18.07.1989 | FedEx |
Previous airline: LOT Polish Airlines | Next airline: Malaysia Airlines |