Luftfahrtgesellschaft Walter

Luftfahrtgesellschaft Walter
IATA ICAO Callsign
AB
HE		 BER
LGW		 AIR BERLIN
WALTER
Founded 1980
Operating bases
Frequent-flyer program topbonus
Alliance none[note 1]
Fleet size 17
Parent company Air Berlin
Headquarters Dortmund, Germany

Luftfahrtgesellschaft Walter mbH, commonly abbreviated LGW, is a German regional airline headquartered in Dortmund. Originally an independent provider of scheduled and chartered low-volume passenger flights, LGW started cooperating with Air Berlin in 2007, later became a full subsidiary and subsequently ceased to operate under its own name and airline code.[1] Today, it operates exclusively in Air Berlin's route network and corporate design.

History

Independent company

LGW Dornier Do 228 in 2004

Luftfahrtgesellschaft Walter was founded in 1980 by Bernd Walter, the owner of a flying school at Dortmund Airport.[2] Initially, LGW offered on-demand charter and air taxi services.[2] During the 1990s, the airline grew a network of scheduled domestic flights.[3] At that time, it had 25 employees and the Dornier Do 228 with its capacity of 19 passengers was the largest airliner in its fleet.[4]

Cooperation with Air Berlin

In 2007, LGW went into a partnership with Air Berlin, the second largest German airline. Effective 12 October of that year, LGW flights into Düsseldorf International Airport and Berlin Tegel Airport were sold via the Air Berlin booking engine.[5] In the following year, Air Berlin introduced the Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 into its fleet. The ten aircraft of that type were leased to LGW[6] and operated on regional routes henceforth.[7]

Subsequently, LGW discontinued its independent corporate identity. It no longer offers any chartered services, but fully concentrates on scheduled flights on behalf of Air Berlin, all of which are operated under Air Berlin flightnumbers and branding.[1] The website lgw.de was shut down and replaced with a redirect to airberlin.com. On 2 March 2009, Air Berlin notified the Federal Cartel Office that it would become the controlling shareholder of LGW.[8]

As staff employed by LGW do not have a collective agreement, salaries are considerably lower than at Air Berlin.[1] To save costs, Air Berlin transferred a large amount of its staff to LGW (especially those whose fixed-term contracts had expired). By the end of 2011, LGW had 110 employees. By early 2013, this number had grown to 480.[9] Since that year, LGW also employed jet pilots, as a number of Embraer 190 aircraft were transferred to the airline from Niki (another Air Berlin subsidiary),[10] the first of which arrived on 14 March leaving the fleet again in November 2013.[7]

By spring 2015, LGW increased their fleet of Bombardier Dash 8 Q400s from 12 to 17.[11]

Destinations

Current operations

LGW's fleet operates throughout Air Berlin's domestic and European network. The majority of flights depart from Air Berlin's hubs at Düsseldorf Airport and Berlin Tegel Airport.

Former destinations

During the 1990s and 2000s, LGW served the following domestic destinations on scheduled flights under its own name and branding:

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
City Airport Commenced
Berlin Berlin Tempelhof Airport[12]
Berlin Tegel Airport[note 2]
1999[4]
2008
Cologne Cologne Bonn Airport
1998[13]
Dortmund Dortmund Airport (base)[14]
early 1990s
Dresden Dresden Airport
2002[15]
Düsseldorf Düsseldorf International Airport
2001[12]
Erfurt Erfurt-Weimar Airport[14]
early 1990s
Hamburg Hamburg Airport[14]
early 1990s
Hanover Hannover Airport
1998[13]
Leipzig Leipzig/Halle Airport
2001[12]
Nuremberg Nuremberg Airport
1998[13]
Rostock Rostock-Laage Airport (seasonal)[14]
early 1990s
Stuttgart Stuttgart Airport
2004[16]
Westerland Sylt Airport (seasonal)
1994[3]

During the summer months, LGW additionally offered on-demand charter flights to the German seaside resorts of Borkum, Heringsdorf, Juist, Norderney, Rügen, Sylt and Wangerooge.[17]

Fleet

Current fleet

An LGW Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 operated for Air Berlin

As of November 2015, LGW operates the following aircraft:[11]

LGW fleet
Aircraft In Service Passengers Notes
Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 17 76 operated for Air Berlin

Historical fleet

Over the years, LGW operated the following aircraft types:

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
LGW historical fleet
Aircraft Introduced Retired
Bombardier Dash 8 Q400
2008[7]
Britten-Norman Islander
1999[4]
Cessna 404 Titan
1997[18]
Dornier Do 228
2008
Embraer 190
2013[7]
2013

References

Notes
  1. ↑ Air Berlin is a member of oneworld. As the aircraft operated by LGW are dispersed throughout the Air Berlin network, the airline thus also operates on oneworld branded flights.
  2. ↑ Following the closure of Tempelhof Airport on 30 October 2008, flights were relocated to Tegel Airport.
Citations
  1. 1 2 3 Friedrich, Tina (21 December 2012). "Air Berlin: Hungerlohn im Cockpit". Spiegel Online. Retrieved 7 May 2013.
  2. 1 2 Information about Luftfahrtgesellschaft Walter at the Aero Transport Data Bank
  3. 1 2 LGW timetable front covers, at timetableimages.com
  4. 1 2 3 "World Airline Directory". Flightglobal: 86. 24 March 1999. Retrieved 7 May 2013.
  5. ↑ "Air Berlin kooperiert mit LGW Walter". airliners.de. 11 October 2007. Retrieved 7 May 2013.
  6. ↑ "Air Berlin setzt erste Q400 ein.". Air Berlin. 7 November 2008. Retrieved 7 May 2013.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "LGW Luftfahrtgesellschaft Walter fleet details". airfleets.net. Retrieved 27 October 2013.
  8. ↑ "Angemeldete Fusionen: Air Berlin / Luftfahrtgesellschaft Walter (Kontrollerwerb)". finanznachrichten.de. Federal Cartel Office. 3 March 2009. Retrieved 7 May 2013.
  9. ↑ Busche, Dirk (30 January 2013). "Kostendruck: Air Berlin wird zur Spardose". Neue Presse. Retrieved 7 May 2013.
  10. ↑ "airberlin will offenbar auch Jets über LGW bereedern". Flug Revue. 11 December 2012. Retrieved 7 May 2013.
  11. 1 2 LGW ch-aviation.com - Luftfahrtgesellschaft Walter retrieved 22 November 2015
  12. 1 2 3 LGW 2001 summer timetable, archived at web.archive.org
  13. 1 2 3 "World Airline Directory". Flightglobal: 87. 18 March 1998. Retrieved 7 May 2013.
  14. 1 2 3 4 "World Airline Directory". Flightglobal: 102. 23 March 1994. Retrieved 7 May 2013.
  15. ↑ LGW 2002 summer timetable, archived at web.archive.org
  16. ↑ LGW 2004 summer timetable, archived at web.archive.org
  17. ↑ LGW flights to the seaside resorts; archived at web.archive.org
  18. ↑ "World Airline Directory". Flightglobal: 84. 26 March 1997.

External links

Media related to Luftfahrtgesellschaft Walter at Wikimedia Commons

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