Lufthansa ends the career of 83-year old Junkers Ju-52 ‘Tante Ju’

The 83-year-old Junkers Ju-52 aircraft, registered D-AQUI, was still operating 16-passenger tourist flights in Germany and Europe until recently. Built in 1936, she was acquired and restored by Lufthansa in 1984.She has been flown ever since then by the Deutsche Lufthansa Berlin Stiftung. However, the airline has confirmed that it would cease the €1 million per annum that the vintage airliner costs to operate by retiring her. As for the future of the aircraft, she may be put to use during airshows, but a decision has not yet been made. In 2007, the German airline also started restoring a Lockheed L-1649 Starliner, for which it also planned to offer tourist flights by 2011.

However, this project, which was delayed several times, has now been abandoned. On 4 August 2018, another Junker JU-52, registered HB-HOT, of the company JU-Air crashed against a mountain in the Swiss Alps.

The plane was transporting eleven men and nine women, but tragically none survived. However, Lufthansa said that its decision to retire its own aircraft did not have any link with that accident.