Lufthansa - Formed as Luftag on 6 January 1953, an order of four Super Constellations was placed late 1953. The company name was later changed to Lufthansa and the first Super Connie was delivered to Hamburg on 15 January 1955, followed by three more aircraft until end of May the same year. The first flight with the 1049Gs was a special flight carrying the Federal Chancellor to Paris on 7 May 1955. Scheduled services started on 8 June 1955, with a three times weekly North Atlantic service from Hamburg to New York, via Dusseldorf and Shannon. Lufthansa becoming the first airline to operate 1049Gs in Europe.

D-ALEM on final approach to Frankfurt airport in June 1966, Zoggavia Collection.

In 1956 services were extended to five times weekly and flights started from Dusseldorf to Chicago via Manchester, UK. Also the second batch of 1049Gs was delivered during 1956, enabling Lufthansa to offer nine weekly flights from Hamburg to New York, two via Dusseldorf and Paris, two via Dusseldorf and Shannon, and five via Frankfurt and Shannon, followed by services to South America with flights from Hamburg and Frankfurt to Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires via Paris and Dakar. Also services to Montreal and Chicago were started. In September 1956 Middle Eastern services were added to Istanbul, Beirut,, Baghdad, Tehran originating from Hamburg via Frankfurt, Dusseldorf, or Munich.

1049H, N1880 was leased from Transocean Airlines for a twice-weekly "SuperCargo" all-Cargo
service from Frankfurt to New York in March 1959, seen here at New York Idlewild, Zoggavia Collection.

Service from New York to Cologne/Bonn was inaugurated with the 1649As on 14 February 1958. The first of four Starliners was delivered in September 1957 and early the following year the type took over all the Germany to New York services from the 1049Gs. "The Senator" service, with First and De Luxe accommodation only, including berths, was flown twice from Hamburg - Frankfurt - Dusseldorf to New York.

D-ALAN L-1649A Starliner seen towed to the terminal for a return flight to Europe at Tokyo in 1961.
Clinton H. Groves Collection

In March 1959, Viscounts started to replace the 1049Gs on the route to Spain and other European destinations. The routes to the Middle East were extended to Asia as far as Bangkok and Singapore, using the 1049Gs' capacity. On 17 March 1960 Boeing 707 started taking over from the Starliners the New York flights followed by the Chicago flight in May. Two of its 1649As were converted to all-cargo aircraft, the first returning in July 1960 from USA to replace the leased 1049H on the all-cargo flights to New York. 1961 saw the replacement of the 1049Gs on the Far Eastern route by Boeing 707. In 1962 two 1649As were leased out to World Airways and the 1049Gs were withdrawn temporarily for front spar repairs after a fatigue crack was detected on one aircraft. Back in service within a few weeks the aircraft were used on European and Domestic routes.  Inspired by Eastern Air Lines' shuttle service a so called Air Bus route, connecting Hamburg - Frankfurt, was introduced. Originally cheaper than the First Class railway ticket  on the route the one way price was later increased to DM 75 for political reasons. By 1964 all the 1049Gs had been withdrawn from all schedules except the German domestic network which was taken over by Boeing 727 in 1967 and the last scheduled Lufthansa Super Connie flights were made on the Frankfurt - Munich, Munich - Hamburg and Hamburg - Frankfurt routes. The last 1049G was withdrawn from use in October 1967.