Carrier Lufthansa is marking its 100 years anniversary with special flights recreating its very first routes from 1926. The celebrations will take place on Monday April 6, 2026, exactly a century after the airline’s original inaugural flights departed from Berlin.
Historic Routes Recreated with Modern Aircraft
The milestone will be commemorated with a mix of ceremonial events and symbolic flights, bringing together aviation enthusiasts, industry guests and airline staff. To mark the anniversary, Lufthansa will operate two special flights retracing its original routes from Berlin to Zurich and Cologne. Unlike the small aircraft used in 1926, the airline will deploy modern widebody jets for the occasion.
A Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner and an Airbus A350-900 will depart Berlin in the afternoon, following similar paths to the original journeys. While the historic flights included stopovers, the 2026 versions will fly direct, passing over the same cities as symbolic waypoints.
Both aircraft will travel from Lufthansa’s hubs in Frankfurt and Munich to Berlin, carrying more than 400 invited passengers, including employees, partners, media representatives and aviation content creators. The aircraft used for the event feature a special anniversary livery to mark the airline’s centenary.
Berlin Ceremony and Global Attention
A formal celebration is also planned at Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER), where more than 600 guests are expected to attend. The event will highlight Lufthansa’s history and its development into one of Europe’s largest airline groups.
The original flights on April 6, 1926, were modest in comparison, with only a handful of passengers onboard. One flight carried a newlywed couple, while another had just a single traveller.
Now, 100 years later, the anniversary flights are expected to draw large crowds, with plane spotters and spectators gathering in Berlin, Zurich and Cologne to watch the departures and arrivals.
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