Lufthansa is a founding member of Star Alliance, one of the world's major airline alliances. Currently, the Lufthansa Group operates more than 300 aircraft. It uses the IATA designator LH.
The company was founded in 1926, following a merger between "Deutsche Aero Lloyd" (DAL) and "Junkers Luftverkehr" on January 6 of that year. The original spelling of the company's long name was Deutsche Luft Hansa Aktiengesellschaft. The name Lufthansa derives from Luft (the German word for "air") and Hansa (the Hanseatic trade organization that ruled large parts of Northern Europe during the medieval times).
In the 1950s, the communist-controlled East Germany attempted to establish its own airline using the Lufthansa name, but this resulted in a dispute with West Germany, where the airline had been already re-established after the Second World War. East Germany instead called its national airline Interflug, which ceased operations in 1991. Lufthansa was also banned from flying into West Berlin until the demise of the communist regime.
