When Lufthansa revealed a new, refreshed livery at a press event in Frankfurt in February, many frequent flyers and aviation enthusiasts groaned in disappointment. Where had the airline's classic yellow gone, and what was this dark blue in its place? Turns out that dark blue may have been too dark, and needs to be changed to something closer to the old blue.
A spokesperson for the German flag carrier told aviation site Airliners.de that "after landings in Hong Kong and New York, for example, we realized that the blue paint sometimes looks much darker than it did in the test environment, especially in adverse weather conditions." So now the airline will have to modify the blue by dialing down the black and adding in more red and green, said the spokesperson, "without giving up the desired deep blue."
It's not entirely clear what the airline plans to do other than adjusting the color of the vertical stabilizer, making the blue tail bluer.
The new livery on a 747-8 under cloudy skies. Photo courtesy of Lufthansa.We're still awaiting word about when this new-new livery will be rolled out, and what specific changes we may see other than the revised blue. While not unprecedented, it's very rare for a major international company to revise its branding so soon after announcing changes like this.
Critics of the newest livery and monochromatic-looking airliners should be pleased by Lufthansa's response, although this whole exercise begs another question: Why didn't anyone involved in the redesign think to try out the paint job in dark, overcast skies? You know, the kind of weather that you see all the time in Germany?
