Editor’s Note: AirlineGeeks is proud to present our ‘Livery of the Week’ series. Every Friday, a team member will share an airline livery, which can be from the past, present, or even a special scheme. Some airline liveries are works of art. The complexity associated with painting around critical flight components and the added weight requires outside-the-box thinking from designers. The average airliner can cost upwards of $200,000 to repaint, creating a separate aircraft repainting industry as a result.
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German flag carrier Lufthansa is one of the oldest airlines still operating under its current name and will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2026.
The first event to celebrate this important milestone took place on Tuesday in Frankfurt when the carrier took delivery of a Boeing 787-9 aircraft in a special celebratory livery purposely designed to commemorate 100 years in the sky.
Giant Crane
The new aircraft landed at Lufthansa’s main hub airport at 9.37 a.m. local time, coming from the Boeing facilities in Everett, Washington, and for the first time it officially displayed the livery depicting a giant while logo across the entire fuselage.
The crane logo was originally designed by German artist Otto Ferle in 1918, and it was adopted in 1926, right at the beginning of the carrier’s life, when the name was Deutsche Luft Hansa. The crane was selected to reflect wisdom and vigilance.
“Our Lufthansa crane stands for safety, pioneering spirit, premium quality, but also for freedom and reliability,” said Jens Ritter, Chief Executive Officer of Lufthansa Airlines, in a statement. “This has been the case for the past 100 years and will continue to be so in the future. We are proud of our tradition and our values, and we look forward to continuing our great history. The special livery of the Boeing 787 honors our identity and also stands for a proud team of Lufthansa employees who give everything every day for the safety and well-being of our guests.”
This livery, ideated by Anglo-Irish designer David Hedley Noble of the design studio Aerobrand, features the Lufthansa crane logo spanning from the tailfin all the way up to the front door in the classic white color over a deep blue background. Right behind the wing, on the port side of the aircraft, a pale-grey “100” recalling a smaller version of the logo remembers the 100th anniversary occasion, while on the starboard side, the same pale-grey is used to display the numbers “1926-2026.”
Three-Class Configuration
The aircraft is a Boeing 787-9 aircraft, registered as D-ABPU, and after the necessary certification procedures, will enter commercial services performing short-haul flights from Frankfurt before being permanently moved to Lufthansa’s long-haul fleet.
It is configured with 287 seats featuring the new Allegris Business Class product with 28 seats, 28 more seats in Premium Economy, and 231 Economy seats. It is part of a small batch of 10 Boeing 787-9 aircraft destined for the Lufthansa mainline fleet after five examples of the same model originally destined to Hainan Airlines were acquired in 2022 and redirected to fully-owned subsidiary Austrian Airlines.
This is just the first of a series of special liveries Lufthansa is planning to unveil during 2026 to celebrate its 100th anniversary. Aerobrand has revealed they are already working on a vintage livery for an Airbus A321 aircraft and a special design for an Airbus A350-1000, while Lufthansa has confirmed that one of its existing Boeing 747-8i aircraft will also feature a celebratory livery.
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