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Lufthansa Celebrates 40 Years of Activity at Turin Airport

On April 12, 2011, to celebrate 40 years of Lufthansa presence at Turin/Caselle airport, flight LH 298 from Frankfurt was operated by a specially painted Airbus A 321, with the "retrò" livery used by the German airline up until the mid 'Sixties.

The first Lufthansa scheduled flight from Frankfurt to Turin (LH 286/287), operated by the then brand new Boeing B.737-100, dates back to April 1, 1971. During the forty years that followed, the activity of the German carrier towards the Piedmontese airport has significantly expanded. On April 1, 1978, the B.737 was replaced by the larger B.727-100 for the Frankfurt-Turin service; on October 27, 1985, new links with Munich (LH 1354/LH 1355) and Stuttgart (LH 1350/LH 1351) were added, being at first operated by small commuters such as the18-seat British Aerospace Jetstream 31 and the 28-seat Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia.

During 1986-1987, in collaboration with Alitalia, the Lufthansa Boeing 747 Freighters flew weekly cargo flights between Turin and the USA, in connection with the production of the Cadillac "Allante", a cabriolet car jointly developed by General Motors and Pininfarina for the US market.

On March 29, 1992, the Frankfurt-Turin service was increased to three a day, operated by both B.373 and A 320 types. On January 20, 2004 a link to Düsseldorf was introduced, with 11 weekly frequencies operated by Bombardier CRJ-100 regional jet. During the past ten years, 3.5 million Lufthansa passengers passed through the Turin/Caselle airport.

With the introduction of the 2011 Summer timetable, Lufthansa - together with its Lufthansa Regional subsidiary - link Turin and Germany with 76 weekly flights, including 28 to Frankfurt, 38 to Munich and ten to Düsseldorf. These three German airports offer direct connections to more than 211 other destinations in 84 countries.

Air Dolomiti and Brussels Airlines - two other Lufthansa partner airlines - are also very active at Turin airport, offering more than 15,000 seats every week to Munich and Brussels. The combined traffic of the three airlines makes Lufthansa Group the major foreign operator at the Turin airport.

In the picture: Airbus A 321-131 D-AIRX of Lufthansa, with historic livery for the 50th anniversary of the airline, lands at Turin/Caselle airport, on April 12, 2011. (Aeromedia)

(Aeromedia, April 2011)