Lufthansa’s New Livery Revealed

Lufthansa’s New Livery Revealed

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For a while there have been rumors of Lufthansa updating their livery, and everything I heard suggested that they were going to reveal the new livery in the first week of February. While they have an unveiling event next week, it looks like there’s now an official rendering of what the new livery will look like. Here it is, on the 747-8:

As a point of comparison, here’s the old livery, pictured on a 747-400:

I’m not really sure what to make of this, to be honest. Maybe I’m too risk averse and just subscribe to the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” philosophy too much. Rarely do I actually like new liveries when they’re introduced, though over time they do sometimes grow on me.

I suspect that’s largely a function of the experiences I associate with certain airlines, and when they change their branding, my feelings towards them change. That’s not to say anything is actually substantially changing, but it suddenly doesn’t feel like “my” airline anymore.

As you can see, Lufthansa is eliminating the yellow, and instead going for an all white and blue livery. The yellow always added a nice splash of color to Lufthansa planes, though that will be no more.

Personally I thought Lufthansa’s old livery was timeless, so I hate to see it go. I don’t like the new livery quite as much, but I also don’t think it’s too bad. I just wish it had a bit more color. Ideally they’d incorporate some yellow, but otherwise even some more blue or silver would look nice. It’s not that the plane is any more “bare” than before, but rather previously there were three colors, while now there are just two, so it just looks plainer.

The Flight Detective points out that the new Lufthansa livery is basically just a blue version of the Qantas livery, and he’s spot on. My gosh, they basically copied it.


Image courtesy of Aero Icarus

What do you make of Lufthansa’s new livery?

(Tip of the hat to @AeronewsRO)

Conversations (68)
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  1. John Guest

    Lufthantas. What an unoriginal, uninspiring, totally insipid non-event of a 'rebrand'. They just copied the Qantas scheme but did it in a dark drab shade of blue.

  2. Joe Guest

    just a frozen livery ! no creativery, no personality anymore, no identity ! just a cheap copy of UTA, Qantas, ex Malev ... etc ! The best way back to an unknown "Anyone Airline" - but not more LH !

  3. Jim New Member

    And next LH will replace the yellow duck with a white goose.

  4. Steven Guest

    Would be very fitting if the first passenger to board

    the inaugural flight in the new livery is Mr Terry Bull.

  5. Natalia Guest

    Just imagine how depressing the entire Frankfurt airport will look when Lufthansa will paint all aircrafts in a new shade of blue. New logo looks very generic and boring.

  6. Loy Guest

    The old sign has gone. It was a crane flying long distances with the sun in the background. It was a promise to bring you into warmer regions far away, a promise to fullfill your desire for exotic destinations. The new crane is a white ghost flying through the dark. That's bull, isn't it?

  7. SullyofDoha Gold

    So they will save money no longer having to print the extra yellow colour. However, now they will have to spend a stupid amount to replace all the signage. Just stupid! Long live the LH Yellow!!!

  8. Esteban Guest

    I just wish Otl Aicher was still alive to give a good lesson to LH design dept.

  9. JH Guest

    How much money did LH pay to have this “3rd grade art class” livery designed?

  10. Alex Member

    What difference does it make? I simply don't care what the plane looks like I am flying in - I don't see the outside anyway.

  11. Greg Tomlinson Guest

    I completely agree with your impressions about the timelessness of their old design. It reflects German simplicity and elegance. I like how the color on Quantas, and the new Lufthansa, reaches around the body rather than stopping at bottom of the tail. They could have simply stuck with the scheme with the yellow, which I like better too, but then extended it around the fuselage and called it a day.

  12. BigG Guest

    Typically German . Boring and bland. I don’t get all the hate for Air Canada. Huge improvement over the sky blue planes and pixelated logo.

  13. Jack New Member

    If someone gave me five seconds to make Lufthansa's current livery worse, this is what I'd come up with. So unimaginative and SO bland. The yellow is iconic and the grey differentiates; despite its simplicity, I love the current livery! If this leak is correct the new one is a huge shame and a waste of cash.

  14. Chico Luz Guest

    in 20 years from now, they'll get the yellow back and have all sorts of campaigns 'back to origins' and whatnots.

  15. Derek Diamond

    I saw a photo of it and thought it was a special edition, not the new livery.

    The best would have been the old one plus blue extended down. The 2nd best is the old one. The 3rd best is the new one. The new one isn't terrible.

  16. Pratap Guest

    How can you have Lufthansa without the yellow???!!! Big mistake in my opinion. This tail wont tell the tale.

  17. AW Guest

    This one doesn't look all that bad...
    Hey, Air Canada did way worse.

  18. pez Member

    But Qantas has the roo! Can't copy that.

    Lufthansa's new one is boring.

  19. Mark Guest

    & Qantas's livery was just a red copy of UTA's ! So in fact Lufties livery would pay tribute to UTA - if so - hopefully they elevate their service levels to UTA's!

  20. ab Guest

    i hate this. Lufthansa's yellow is such an iconic part of its brand and heritage and has been there forever. its not just the seats even uniforms have yellow color integrated in them. they could have updated it with modern design element while keeping the yellow.

  21. snic Diamond

    @Gilbert: "But unfortunately, Lufthansa only knows friendliness as a sort of carefully measured intelligence that comes from the brain and not from the heart."

    I have to say, during my latest misconnect in FRA, LH staff were warm, friendly, understanding, efficient and competent. I was quite pleasantly surprised.

  22. snic Diamond

    This is even worse than United eliminating the "tulip" U in favor of the Continental latitude/longitude globe.

    Has LH changed their livery at all in the last 50+ years? It seems like all my life, I've been flying on Lufthansa planes with a yellow circle/blue crane. Yellow is indelibly the color of Lufthansa, as all their signs, boarding passes, etc invariably have yellow. Why remove it from the plane livery? It's bizarre.

  23. Stevenm Guest

    its definitely more clean and crisp and distances themselves from the low costs carriers but a little yellow wouldn't hurt. Seems like outside of AA all the new branding/liveries look worse. Its been years since AA redid theirs but I still find it to look really really good and I never fly AA.

  24. Bobby Guest

    I hope the yellow removal is only on the aircraft. I do not want to see the yellow disappear from the check-in counters, signs, Senator lounges, etc.

  25. John Guest

    Am guessing the the yellow signage and lettering at all their lounges, counters, gates change as well.

  26. Claus Guest

    Leaves me puzzled. The only explanation I could imagine is like @Tom said, that they feel the blue and yellow color scheme has been highjacked by Ryanair...

    The current livery was introduced in 1988. I am pretty sure the new design will not last as long, doesn’t look nearly as timeless.

  27. TravelinWilly Diamond

    Overall I like the new livery.

    That said, the crane flying in front of a gold background is classic, and I wish they hadn't felt the need to change that part. I'm no Photoshop pro, so I can't do this myself, but I would love to see the new livery but with the circle still in gold.

    I also wonder if the gold circle was supposed to represent the sun. Whether or not that's...

    Overall I like the new livery.

    That said, the crane flying in front of a gold background is classic, and I wish they hadn't felt the need to change that part. I'm no Photoshop pro, so I can't do this myself, but I would love to see the new livery but with the circle still in gold.

    I also wonder if the gold circle was supposed to represent the sun. Whether or not that's the case, the gold added much needed warmth. The new liver with simply a crane in a circle is too austere. I hope the flight attendants keep the gold accents.

  28. Ruy Guest

    How sad. The yellow added some warmth to their brand. It made the plane cheerful, matched by the beautiful yellow scarfs onboard.

  29. Daniele Guest

    Apologies for being pedantic, but that version of the Qantas livery has already been updated twice (albeit subtly).

  30. Charlie McMillan Gold

    I confess that the paint job on an aircraft is something I rarely notice, much less care about.

  31. Edward Guest

    If they were going to change it, I'd rather they would have gone to the retro jet look that D-ABYT sports... this is just boring

  32. Donald Guest

    Why get rid of their iconic yellow and copy another airline.
    Giant waste of money.

  33. James W Guest

    Lufthansa's current livery has four colors (white, blue, yellow, and gray), not three. The new livery only has two (white and blue).

    I'm surprised so few people have noticed the elimination of the gray paint on the belly and engines. It was the sole element of color on an otherwise all-white fuselage (aside from the tail).

  34. Super VC-10 Gold

    Can't someone start a campaign to Save The Spiegelei! (fried egg)?

  35. Michael Guest

    Another BOAC story - when a timeless livery is replaced with something not necessarily bad, but nowhere near so iconic! Always loved Lufthansa for the timelessness and the strict, business-like style. Goodbye, sweet prince!

  36. Donna Diamond

    I prefer the new one.

  37. CS Guest

    They could not possibly have been more uncreative, boring and fake five-stary than this.

    Congrats Lufthansa management.

  38. Alex Guest

    I am really disappointed by this bland, uninspired (and uninspiring) new livery and I will dearly miss the iconic LH yellow. It‘s still on the FA uniforms, but as these have been around for 18 years or so, I am afraid the yellow is doomed to vanish for good also from the uniforms ...

  39. Gilbert Guest

    It totally fits with Lufthansa's lack-luster and love-devoid culture. Yellow sort of represents something bright, like genuine friendliness from the heart. But unfortunately, Lufthansa only knows friendliness as a sort of carefully measured intelligence that comes from the brain and not from the heart. Sorry, you can't teach genuine friendliness to the robots that comprise this corporation. It is best that LH keeps to the lackluster boring DAAAAARK-BLUE without the yellow, because this truly represents...

    It totally fits with Lufthansa's lack-luster and love-devoid culture. Yellow sort of represents something bright, like genuine friendliness from the heart. But unfortunately, Lufthansa only knows friendliness as a sort of carefully measured intelligence that comes from the brain and not from the heart. Sorry, you can't teach genuine friendliness to the robots that comprise this corporation. It is best that LH keeps to the lackluster boring DAAAAARK-BLUE without the yellow, because this truly represents their coldness and business like approach to everything.

  40. Robert Diamond

    This new livery is fantastic, I've never liked the yellow. It is now clean and crisp, like I'd expect from an iconic German company.

  41. Dean Guest

    I agree with Lucky in that livery changes almost never look good to me when first seeing them. There's one exception though: American. They have my favorite livery in the sky, and such an improvement over the old, albeit iconic, design.

  42. AdamR Diamond

    Boring and uninspired. There's such a thing as too minimalist. They should've kept the iconic yellow, but perhaps slimmed the lines of the circle and crane while extending the blue down the empennage as they've done. Of course I'm no graphic designer, but as a consumer I'm not a fan.

  43. Tom Guest

    Definitely a bit of a boring option, but I’ve always thought Lufthansa was very soulless and dull frankly... I mean the inflight magazine is just called “Magazin”!

    I would imagine they’re trying to distance themselves from the blue and yellow colour scheme which in Europe is increasingly seen on Ryanair (and Ikea) and might give a ‘cheap’ impression.

  44. Third Passport Guest

    Whenever I think of LH I think of yellow too! The new livery is ok, a bit boring but not offensive.

  45. henry LAX Guest

    if the contest was "how to make a bland generic Eurowhite and make it even more coma inducing" then LH's new livery would've won hands down.

  46. jack Guest

    This is one thing that always amazes me, i.e. how much time is spent writing about and discussing how airlines paint their planes. To be it seems absolutely trivial compared to so many other things that they do, or the industry in general. Maybe I'm just no fun, but who really cares what color the plane is. I care much more about whether the plane is safe, the seats are comfortable, it's clean, the food is good and I get there well rested and on-time.

  47. Evan Gold

    I agree it didn't need to be changed but I quite like the new design.

    More importantly though, can we just get emirates to go full Trump with a gaudy all gold livery?

  48. Abdülhamid Guest

    From a design theory and a management perspective, I can see this; exactly such ´updates are by the book, and the Lufthansavorstand surely has his backside covered with all kinds of FH professors' reports that this will increase their recognition by 2.56% and shareholder value by 0.165 or some such. But I agree with the dismissive tone of everyone here, I would just say that the new blander LH is in line with the lounges,...

    From a design theory and a management perspective, I can see this; exactly such ´updates are by the book, and the Lufthansavorstand surely has his backside covered with all kinds of FH professors' reports that this will increase their recognition by 2.56% and shareholder value by 0.165 or some such. But I agree with the dismissive tone of everyone here, I would just say that the new blander LH is in line with the lounges, the soft product and the purchased five stars. LH for me (I am based near FRA a good part of the year) means it's never exciting or special or friendly or stylish or delicious, but there is a basic solidity and reliability here and a certain assurance that sooner or later you and your luggage will actually reach your destination.

  49. Brad Guest

    Don’t forget that the belly will no longer be grey.

  50. Gregg Diamond

    The new LH livery is unimaginative, uninspired; in a word, it's hideous. I would think they have have far better things to do with their time and money than this.

  51. Super VC-10 Gold

    I've been flying Lufthansa since the early 70's and so I will miss the iconic navy & yellow livery. I certainly don't see this as an improvement.

  52. Worldtraveller73 Guest

    I wonder what will happen to the flight crew uniforms; they had yellow flair which will likely also disappear.

    It will be drab looking on board. Ha ha

  53. Andy Guest

    The new logo is a bit more bland. LH flies the 747-8I to BLR, hopefully I'll catch it once I get my US visa renewed.

    Indian citizens need a US visa stamped on their passport to travel from US to India via Germany.

    It's an unusually burdensome rule, since US visas take 8 months to get renewed, can only be stamped in India, and Indians can travel via Germany only after that.

  54. Billiken Guest

    I agree that there was nothing wrong with the old one, but I kind of like the new one.

  55. Flieger Guest

    Most of the new liveries are awful. Air Canada and now LH are making it worse...

  56. Joey Diamond

    What a waste of money! I'm sure Lufthansa paid a design company $$$ for the redesign only to see it was a copy of Qantas's! Would be funny if Qantas and Lufthansa hired the same company.
    In addition, it also costs $$$ to repaint all their planes when they didn't need to. Not sure what they're thinking but clearly they have money to spend.
    I understand a change in livery if the brand...

    What a waste of money! I'm sure Lufthansa paid a design company $$$ for the redesign only to see it was a copy of Qantas's! Would be funny if Qantas and Lufthansa hired the same company.
    In addition, it also costs $$$ to repaint all their planes when they didn't need to. Not sure what they're thinking but clearly they have money to spend.
    I understand a change in livery if the brand wants to change its image (Malaysia Airlines comes to mind) but in Lufthansa's case, they didn't really need it.

  57. jasdou New Member

    I always liked the Lufthansa gold and blue colors and what they evoked. The new livery looks clean but definitely lacks the impact that the accent gold was bringing. I like how the blue continues down on the fuselage but wish they had somehow kept the gold!

  58. John Guest

    I don't see the appeal of the new livery. Seems like change for no reason, other than to perhaps celebrate becoming a five-star airline?

    I do admit I love the retro livery on one of the 747-8 fleet.

  59. Athensoh Guest

    Ukraine International livery, plenty of yellow and blue
    https://www.flyuia.com/assets/img/fleet/boeing-767.png

  60. raksiam Diamond

    well, there's really only so many things you can do. I'm sure there are many more examples of that sort of tail livery beyond QANTAS.

    I like the LH update. It looks like the tail has some kind of graphic to it though, it's not just plain blue. Most companies update these things on a schedule of several years.

  61. Mateusz New Member

    Kinda similar to LOT Polish

  62. criced Guest

    Lufthansa is yellow for me.

  63. AC Guest

    Echoes what Cathay Pacific did with their livery - reduce and simplify to the core elements (crane / brushwing) on a deeper and richer variation of their primary colours (blue / green). However, I think in both cases the exercise has reduced them to bland eurowhite liveries that don't leave much of an impression.

  64. The nice Paul Diamond

    I can’t see either why a change is needed, or that the new image is an improvement. Like you, I feel the current identity is classic rather than dated.

    Not sure I agree that more colours is necessarily better; have a look at original BOAC liveries - just black on white. They look timelessly stylish.

  65. James Guest

    Whoever they paid to do the re-design are laughing all the way to the bank. As Lucky said, if ain't broke, don't fix it!

  66. James K. Guest

    Totally agree on the need for the yellow accent

  67. vand Member

    hah. I genuinely thought of qantas before scrolling down. Slick nonetheless.

Featured Comments Most helpful comments ( as chosen by the OMAAT community ).

The comments on this page have not been provided, reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any advertiser, and it is not an advertiser's responsibility to ensure posts and/or questions are answered.

Natalia Guest

Just imagine how depressing the entire Frankfurt airport will look when Lufthansa will paint all aircrafts in a new shade of blue. New logo looks very generic and boring.

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SullyofDoha Gold

So they will save money no longer having to print the extra yellow colour. However, now they will have to spend a stupid amount to replace all the signage. Just stupid! Long live the LH Yellow!!!

1
John Guest

Lufthantas. What an unoriginal, uninspiring, totally insipid non-event of a 'rebrand'. They just copied the Qantas scheme but did it in a dark drab shade of blue.

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