AIRLINES: New Condor branding revolutionises aircraft livery design

Condor is a popular German leisure airline, which has just unveiled a new brand identity, very different from the standard visual language of airlines.

Vacation is stripes

Channelling deck chair fabric, Condor is claiming ‘Condor is vacation’ and ‘vacation is stripes’ as their brand message.

“Our new trademark are stripes, our figurative mark stands for our origin and the colors for diversity. This triad is new, what remains is our passion. It has always made Condor unique and is therefore also reflected in our claim: Passion is our compass.”

Ralf Teckentrup, CEO of Condor

The new branding replaces the old livery of Condor:

All branding, all new

The stripes theme and its 5 colours: yellow, red, blue, green, and beige, stand for the diversity of Condor’s passengers, employees and the varied destinations of Condor.

The redesign will include crew uniforms, accessories, neckerchiefs, ties and pins, onboard cups, blankets and cutlery, airport signage, tickets, website and social media over the coming months. 80% of the fleet will be repainted as aircraft come due and will be completed by 2024.

Initial routes for the 5 or so aircraft to be repainted immediately will be to Mallorca, Greece, the Canary Islands and Egypt.

2PAXfly Takeout

This is another timely reminder to wear your seatbelt when seated. Holding you close to your seat will protect you from the sort of injuries sustained on this flight, when unsecured passengers flew to the ceiling of the aircraft, and then came crashing down once the ‘drop’ ceased.

The hope will be that this is an anomaly – a ‘freak accident’ in casual parlance. If it is a systemic error either mechanical or electronic, then this is a larger concern for the airlines that fly Boeing Dreamliner 787 aircraft. Let’s hope it isn’t. If it is, it will pile on the woes to Boeing’s existing stack.

I can’t say that I like this new livery, although it may grow on me. What I very definitely do applaud is the innovation it represents. Commercial aeroplane livery has assumed a particular look, as though it had to obey certain rules over the last 20 odd years. This is possibly more revolutionary than the designs for British Airways tails so hated by Margaret Thatcher at their launch back in the 1997. It took them 4 years to abandon the concept – which I rather liked for its abandonment of the colonial union jack tail livery.