Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt International) is considering moving its legal domicile from Cologne to Munich, but no decision has been made yet, a company spokesperson has confirmed to ch-aviation.

"It is correct that there are considerations regarding the registered office of Deutsche Lufthansa AG. These considerations are at a very early stage. No preliminary decision has been made, let alone a decision on the future legal seat of the company. Nor will there be an item on the agenda or a decision on this matter at our upcoming annual general meeting in Munich on May 9, 2023," the spokesman said.

A change of legal domicile will have little practical impact on Lufthansa's commercial operations managed from its head office at Frankfurt International. A legal domicile is the location declared in legal documents and where the company pays taxes. Bavaria offers a competitive system of corporate taxation.

Lufthansa's current legal domicile is in Cologne-Ehrenfeld, a remnant of historical circumstances. To distance itself from the airline's association with Nazi Germany, West Germany set up a new state-owned airline called Aktiengesellschaft für Luftverkehrsbedarf (Luftag) in Cologne on January 6, 1953. On August 6, 1954, Luftag acquired the name and logo of the liquidated Deutsche Lufthansa, thus continuing the tradition of a German flag carrier of that name.