Lufthansa was founded in 1953 and commenced operations in 1955. The airline is headquartered in Cologne, Germany, using Frankfurt and Munich as main hubs. The German airline has a main fleet of nearly 280 aircraft flying to 220 destinations around the world. The fleet is led by Airbus A380-800 and Boeing 747-8 aircraft with still eight Boeing 747-400 remaining, for now.
The airline is a founding member of the Star Alliance. Other founding members include Scandinavian Airlines, Thai Airways, Air Canada and United Airlines. The alliance is headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, Germany and now has 26 full member airlines.