DALLAS — Today, in 1973, the German leisure carrier Hapag-Lloyd Flug (HF) operated its maiden flight with a Boeing 727-100. One hundred twenty-four passengers departed Hamburg (HAM) bound for Ibiza (IBZ).

Hapag-Lloyd Flug was established in 1972 by the shipping giant of the same name to carry passengers to its cruise ships.

History

Initially using three Boeing 727s, HF expanded its network across the Mediterranean as the holiday market grew. By 1979, its fleet had grown to eight 727s.

On January 1, 1979, HF took over rival Bavaria Germanair (BV). With it came a fleet of Airbus A300B4s and BAC One-Eleven -400s and -500s.

Brand new wide-body Airbus A310s replaced the A300s, the first arriving in January 1988. These longer-range jets allowed HF to expand across the Atlantic with charter flights to North America and the Caribbean. The airline operated both the -200 series and larger -300 series jets.

737-800 Launch Customer

The carrier became the launch customer for the Boeing 737-800. HF initially ordered 16 of the type to replace its aging 737-400 and -500 models. Boeing handed over its first example to the airline on April 23.

In October 2000, HF also became the first airline to fly the 737-800 with blended winglets and provided one of their airframes as a certification-test model to trial the new technology.

The iconic HF livery, unchanged for nearly 30 years, disappeared in 2002 as owners TUI AG looked to streamline their aviation businesses. In January 2007, the Hapag-Lloyd and Hapag Lloyd Express names were retired, with the airline becoming simply TUIfly Germany.