Old bird: Lufthansa

One of the world’s classic airlines is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its flights to India. Lufthansa launched the service in November 1959 as the penultimate stop on a 38-hour voyage from Hamburg to Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Rome, Cairo, Karachi, Calcutta and Bangkok by Lockheed Super Constellation. Though this flight inaugurated the airline’s scheduled service to the subcontinent, Lufthansa had been here before, in September 1934, when a 16-seater Junkers Ju 52 landed in Jodhpur on an exploratory flight, before continuing to Rangoon, Bangkok, Hanoi, Canton and Shanghai. That distinctive aircraft, with its corrugated ‘Duralumin’ skin has become something of a mascot for the German flag carrier which still offers enthusiasts flights on a restored and reverentially maintained Ju 52. The joyrides are just an hour long but the waiting list stretches back for months.