Deutsche Lufthansa AG (ISIN: DE0008232125) is the second largest airline in Europe in terms of overall passengers carried (after Air France - KLM). The name of the company is derived from Luft (the German word for "air"), and Hansa (after Hanseatic League, the powerful medieval trading group).

The airline is the German flag carrier and the world's sixth largest airline in terms of overall passengers carried, operating services to 200 destinations in 100 countries. Together with its partners Lufthansa services over 410 destinations.[1] It has the second-largest passenger airline fleet in the world, when combined with Lufthansa CityLine, Air Dolomiti, Eurowings, Germanwings, Augsburg Airways, Contact Air, and SWISS, operating 529 aircraft.

Lufthansa is based in Cologne. Its main base and primary traffic hub is at Frankfurt International Airport in Frankfurt am Main with a second hub at Munich International Airport.

Lufthansa is a founding member of Star Alliance, the largest airline alliance. Star Alliance was formed in 1997 together with Thai Airways, United Airlines, Air Canada and Scandinavian Airline Systems. Star Alliance has now 19 member airlines and 3 regional members. The Lufthansa Group operates more than 400 aircraft and employs nearly 100,000 people worldwide. In 2007, 56,4 million passengers flew with Lufthansa.