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What were they thinking? This airline will soon paint bright stripes all over its planes

Ethan Klapper
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Ethan Klapper is a senior aviation reporter at TPG who focuses on the operational side of the airline industry.
April 04, 2022
•
3 min read
What were they thinking? This airline will soon paint bright stripes all over its planes
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We thought it was a joke at first — but April Fools' Day was last week.

German leisure airline Condor on Monday revealed a new livery and, well, we have questions.

The livery was unveiled in Toulouse, France, as the airline's first Airbus A330neo left the paint hangar. It's got stripes. A lot of stripes.

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Here's how the airline describes it:

Condor is vacation. And vacation is stripes. Germany's most popular leisure airline is unveiling its new brand identity today: In the future, Condor will wear stripes in five colors. Inspired by parasols, bath towels and beach chairs, Condor is evolving into a distinctive and unique vacation airline.

You certainly can't argue with "distinctive" and "unique."

Ultimately, the stripes will come in five colors: yellow ("sunshine"), red ("passion"), blue ("sea"), green ("island") and beige ("beach"). The first flight operated by a striped plane will come on Tuesday, when a yellow-striped Airbus A321 will fly to Lanzarote, Canary Islands.

Stripey! (Image courtesy of Condor)

And the stripes are not just for the airline's fleet aircraft. Far from it.

The crew uniforms, accessories such as neckerchiefs, ties and pins will shine in the new design too, which will also make its way on board, to the airports, on the website and on social media: in the coming weeks and months, many items on board will be replaced, such as cups, blankets and cutlery, as well as all materials on the ground such as boarding passes, ID cards and airport signage.

The new identity was designed by German designer Remo Masala's firm, Vision Alphabet.

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"Our goal was to endow Condor with a special visual independence, the rationale of which is united in Condor's brand essence: the invention of the vacation flight, and the effective vacation code, the stripes of summer, joy and freedom," Masala said in a statement.

Years ago, Condor's livery was sometimes confused with that of another, much larger German airline: Lufthansa, which was once its owner.

Condor retrojet. Kind of looks like Lufthansa, right? (Photo by Martin Leissl/Bloomberg/Getty Images)

Let's just say that there will no longer be any confusion with this livery.

More: The art of designing an aircraft livery

People were swift to make some ... comments about the stripes on Monday.

Some TPG staffers saw a drinking straw:

(Photo by Natasha Breen/REDA&CO/Universal Images Group/Getty Images)

Others saw "Where's Waldo?":

(Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images)

And others on Twitter saw gum:

Still, not everyone hated it, including German aviation journalist Andreas Spaeth.

Regardless of what you think, Condor's bet its future on the stripes. And in case you're wondering, here's where you'll begin to see some stripes soon:

Condor's August 2022 route map. (Screenshot from Cirium)
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Editorial disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.

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