Lufthansa City Airlines, the young regional subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group, is moving into a new phase of its development with the opening of a full hub at Frankfurt Airport and a wave of fresh routes across Europe. After bedding in operations from its first base in Munich, the carrier is now positioning Frankfurt as a second cornerstone of its short and medium haul network from early 2026. For travelers in Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, Sweden, France and Romania, that means more nonstop options to one of Europe’s most important intercontinental gateways and easier onward connections across the Lufthansa Group network.
A New Frankfurt Hub for Lufthansa’s Newest Airline
Frankfurt has long been the beating heart of Lufthansa’s global operation, and from February 2026 it will also become a fully fledged base for Lufthansa City Airlines. The move is part of a broader reshaping of the group’s short haul strategy, with the new subsidiary gradually taking over a range of intra-European and domestic services currently flown by the mainline carrier. Airport operator Fraport has already confirmed that Lufthansa City Airlines will join the Frankfurt schedule from February, operating flights to key European cities including Berlin, Manchester, Valencia, Málaga and Düsseldorf.
While Lufthansa City Airlines launched commercial operations from Munich in June 2024 with a small fleet of Airbus A319s, the Frankfurt expansion marks its elevation from a niche newcomer to a central player in the group’s feeder network. According to recent route filings and schedule updates, February 9, 2026 is set as the operational start date for the Frankfurt base, with departures ramping up through the spring and into the summer season. Rather than one grand switch-on, the airline is opting for a rolling expansion as additional aircraft and crews come online.
The strategy fits neatly with Frankfurt’s role as a global long haul hub. By consolidating a dense web of regional links under Lufthansa City Airlines, the group aims to secure its competitive position against both European network rivals and low-cost carriers. For travelers, the practical outcome is a wider choice of frequencies and connection times, particularly for those journeying between secondary European cities and long haul destinations in North America, Asia and Africa.
Route Rollout: From February Launches to a Busy Summer 2026
The Frankfurt build-up is carefully staged. Early schedule filings and airport briefings point to a February 2026 start linking Frankfurt with Manchester, Berlin and Valencia. Those initial services will be followed in March by further additions to Düsseldorf and Málaga as a second aircraft is deployed at the base. By the start of the summer timetable at the end of March, travelers should already see a clear Lufthansa City Airlines presence on Frankfurt departure boards to both Germany and southern Europe.
The real acceleration comes in summer 2026. Updated network plans indicate that London Heathrow, Stockholm, Bilbao, Hamburg, Helsinki, Ibiza, Marseille and Bucharest will all join the Frankfurt map over the course of the season. This will give Lufthansa City Airlines a footprint stretching from the British Isles to the Baltic and from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean and the Balkans, with Frankfurt as the central interchange.
By September 2026, the Frankfurt base is projected to be operating with around seven Airbus A320neo aircraft. That fleet will be complemented by additional capacity at Munich, where Lufthansa City Airlines is also expanding its route list to cities such as Amsterdam, Budapest, Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Helsinki, Lyon, Madrid and Toulouse. Taken together, the dual-hub model hints at the long term ambition: a tightly integrated, pan-European network feeding long haul services for the wider Lufthansa Group.
What This Means for Travelers in Germany and the United Kingdom
German travelers stand to benefit first from the shift. New Lufthansa City Airlines services from Frankfurt to Berlin, Hamburg and Düsseldorf will help compensate for cuts and reshuffling in the wider domestic network as the group works to reduce costs and focus capacity on routes with strong connecting potential. Berlin gets a strong two daily pattern from Frankfurt starting in February 2026, while Düsseldorf and Hamburg gain new or expanded links as the spring schedule develops.
For passengers in the United Kingdom, the spotlight is firmly on London and Manchester. Lufthansa City Airlines already serves Birmingham and Manchester from Munich; Frankfurt now brings a second German hub within direct reach. The new Frankfurt to Manchester flights, planned with six weekly frequencies at launch, will give business and leisure travelers in northern England easier access to a vast onward network, from Frankfurt’s transatlantic departures to an array of destinations in Asia and Africa. London Heathrow joins later in the summer schedule, initially at a high frequency that is expected to increase further in the winter 2026 to 2027 timetable.
This enhanced UK connectivity also dovetails with Lufthansa Group’s broader push into the British market, where it faces fierce competition from low cost carriers and rival network airlines. With Lufthansa City Airlines offering the full Lufthansa onboard product on shorter routes, passengers flying from London or Manchester via Frankfurt can expect a familiar experience, including integrated check in, through-ticketing and participation in the Miles and More frequent flyer programme.
New Possibilities for Spain, France, Sweden and Romania
The ramp up at Frankfurt will be keenly felt across southern and northern Europe as well. Spain sees a mix of sun and city routes, with Valencia and Málaga programmed early in the base’s life. Valencia appears in the first wave of February routes, giving that dynamic Mediterranean city a direct link to Germany’s main intercontinental hub via Lufthansa City Airlines. Málaga follows in March, and is then scheduled for intensive service through the late March to October summer season, which is likely to appeal to both German holidaymakers and Spanish travelers connecting onwards to long haul destinations.
France gains in multiple ways. Lufthansa City Airlines’ early years already included French regional destinations from Munich, and Frankfurt’s summer 2026 schedule adds Paris Charles de Gaulle and Marseille to the mix. Flights to Paris are set to operate daily, while Marseille, the major port city on the Mediterranean, will see up to 19 weekly frequencies. For French travelers in both the capital and the south, that means more choice beyond the traditional Paris to Frankfurt trunk route flown by other Lufthansa Group carriers, with new timings and capacity tailored to the needs of connecting traffic.
In northern Europe, Sweden and Finland are prominent beneficiaries. Gothenburg and Helsinki were already on Lufthansa City Airlines’ Munich roadmap for 2025, and Frankfurt will complement those services with additional frequencies and patterns from summer 2026. Stockholm features among the new Frankfurt destinations, providing Sweden’s capital with a fresh alternative to other Star Alliance routings. The triple combination of Gothenburg, Stockholm and Frankfurt should make it easier for Swedish travelers to tap into the breadth of the Lufthansa network without relying solely on Scandinavian hubs.
Romania’s capital, Bucharest, is another noteworthy addition. Scheduled to join the Frankfurt network in the 2026 summer timeframe, the route positions Lufthansa City Airlines as an additional player in a market already served by low cost and full service carriers. The twice daily pattern envisaged for Bucharest is designed for connectivity: morning and evening waves that slot neatly into long haul banks at Frankfurt, allowing Romanian travelers to connect to North America or Asia with a single stop, while also offering German and Western European passengers straightforward access to Bucharest’s growing business and tech scene.
Fleet, Comfort and the Passenger Experience
Behind the expanding route map sits an ambitious fleet plan. Lufthansa City Airlines currently operates a mix of Airbus A319 and A320neo aircraft, with the more modern neos taking an increasingly central role as new deliveries arrive. In parallel, Lufthansa Group has a major order in place for Airbus A220-300 aircraft that will begin joining the airline’s fleet from 2026 onward. Those smaller jets are earmarked for thinner and regional routes where fuel efficiency and right-sized capacity are essential to profitability.
From the passenger perspective, the experience on Lufthansa City Airlines is intended to mirror that of Lufthansa’s mainline short and medium haul services. Cabins are configured for both Economy and Business Class, with the familiar European-style business seating of a blocked middle seat in the forward rows. Travelers benefit from the same booking channels, airport processes and customer service touchpoints as the rest of the Lufthansa network, which is particularly important at a complex hub like Frankfurt where through-checking of baggage, lounge access and connection protection are all key selling points.
The adoption of newer aircraft types also has environmental and comfort implications. The A320neo and A220 families offer significantly reduced fuel burn and lower noise footprints compared with older models they replace. For airports like Frankfurt, which operates under strict noise regulations, those advances help airlines grow without triggering additional community or regulatory pressure. For passengers, newer cabins typically come with improved lighting, overhead bin space and air quality systems, subtle upgrades that make a difference on frequent short hops.
Competitive Landscape and Labor Tensions
Lufthansa City Airlines does not exist in a vacuum. Its emergence and rapid expansion are closely tied to the Lufthansa Group’s need to compete with low cost carriers while managing labor costs and productivity. Industry analysts and union representatives have repeatedly pointed out that the new subsidiary offers the group more flexibility in areas such as pay scales and rostering than some of its more established units. That has made the airline a lightning rod in broader labor disputes that have hit the group in recent months.
Pilot and cabin crew unions have warned that shifting more flying to lower cost platforms such as Lufthansa City Airlines and sister carrier Discover could come at the expense of jobs and conditions at the core Lufthansa and CityLine operations. Recent strike actions in Germany, including walkouts that disrupted hundreds of flights at Frankfurt and other airports, have highlighted the tensions between management and workforce over pensions, job security and the distribution of flying across the group’s brands.
For travelers, the key question is reliability. While Lufthansa City Airlines has so far been less affected by industrial action than some other units, schedule changes and cancellations across the group can still impact connections, particularly at Frankfurt where multiple carriers share feeder responsibilities. The company insists that the creation of a streamlined, modern short haul operator will ultimately support a more robust network, but much will depend on its ability to reach sustainable labor agreements that align cost control with operational stability.
Connecting Europe to the World via Frankfurt
The choice of Frankfurt as Lufthansa City Airlines’ second hub is not accidental. The airport functions as a global crossroads, with Lufthansa and its Star Alliance partners offering long haul flights to the Americas, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. By building out a dedicated regional arm that is tailored to the demands of short and medium haul flying, the group aims to ensure that those long distance services are fed efficiently from a wide catchment area across Europe.
For travelers from the United Kingdom, Spain, Sweden, France and Romania, that translates into a growing menu of one stop itineraries via Frankfurt, often with multiple daily options and coordinated minimum connection times. A traveler from Manchester heading to Tokyo, a passenger from Bucharest bound for Chicago, or a holidaymaker from Málaga flying to Johannesburg can all plug into the same connecting structure, benefitting from through-ticketing, protected connections and reciprocal frequent flyer benefits.
At the same time, the new Lufthansa City Airlines network at Frankfurt will increase intra-European point to point options. Not every passenger will be connecting to long haul. Business travelers shuttling between Frankfurt and London, Stockholm or Paris, or leisure travelers linking Frankfurt with coastal destinations like Valencia, Málaga or Ibiza, will also find added capacity and frequency. This dual role as both connector and point to point carrier is at the heart of Lufthansa City Airlines’ positioning within the group.
Looking Ahead: A Growing Role in Europe’s Skies
As Lufthansa City Airlines beds in its Frankfurt hub through 2026, its profile in European aviation is set to rise sharply. The combination of a modernizing fleet, dense dual-hub network from Munich and Frankfurt, and an emphasis on seamless integration with Lufthansa’s long haul operations positions the airline as a key piece in the group’s strategy for the decade ahead. For now, the focus is on delivering the step-by-step ramp up at Frankfurt, absorbing routes from the mainline carrier and steadily adding new destinations.
Travelers across Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, Sweden, France and Romania will be among the first to feel the impact. More nonstop options to Frankfurt, better timed connections and a consistent onboard product should make planning European trips and long haul journeys via Germany simpler and more attractive. As always in aviation, the success of the plan will depend on execution: aircraft deliveries must arrive on schedule, labor relations need careful management and demand has to keep pace with capacity.
Yet the outlines of the new landscape are already visible. Lufthansa City Airlines, once a name on paper, is evolving into a visible presence at gates and on departure boards across the continent. With Frankfurt now designated as its latest hub and a raft of new routes stitched into the fabric of the Lufthansa network, the airline is poised to play a prominent role in how Europe travels in the second half of this decade.