Lufthansa has finally officially unveiled its new livery, after images of the design appeared online last week.

As reported by Business Traveller on February 1, the new livery has kept the iconic crane image, but dropped the yellow colouring in favour of a new “Lufthansa Blue” design.

The carrier said that response to the new appearance had been “predominantly positive”, although it recognized that some missed the “traditional yellow tone”.

Lufthansa said that the yellow “will receive a specific function to serve as a means of orientation and differentiation”, and would be found “on every boarding pass and at every Lufthansa counter at the airport, among other things”.

Unveiling the carrier’s first new livery for nearly 30 years, Carsten Spohr, Chairman of the Executive Board of Deutsche Lufthansa AG said:

“Lufthansa has changed and is more modern and successful than ever. From now on, this will also be visible to the public through a new design.

“The crane has always been with us and clearly stands for the promising performance from Lufthansa. To this day, it still stands as a symbol of highest quality, excellent service, flying expertise, reliability, innovative spirit; and it stands for trust.”

The Lufthansa crane was designed 100 years ago by graphic artist Otto Firle, and has been reworked “to meet requirements of the digital age”. For Lufthansa this means a slimmer design, with a thinner ring which “makes the crane look more elegant, bringing it into the foreground and granting it more space”.

The airline said that “The familiar blue-yellow color combination of Lufthansa will also be retained – but the use of these primary colors will be redefined”.

“The blue specially developed for Lufthansa is somewhat darker, more elegant and is becoming the leading brand color. It stands for reliability, clarity and value,” it added. Lufthansa said that the new look was whittled down from over 800 designs.

Keen to stress the continued use of yellow going forward, Lufthansa said that “In the cabin, guests will encounter the modernized design within the crew’s uniform in the form of new – and often yellow – accessories”. More information on the new design can be found at explorethenew.com.

The Lufthansa Group branding has also been overhauled, removing the crane and with the wording written entirely in capital letters.

Two aircraft have so far been repainted with the new design – an A321 and a B747-8 – the Boeing jumbo is today (February 8) undertaking a tour of ten German airports including Frankfurt, Hamburg and Berlin, while the Airbus aircraft is visiting Milan Malpensa and Paris Charles de Gaulle.

lufthansa.com