It’s not often we specifically report on the new livery of an airline, but this time we make an exemption. Because German leisure airline Condor has come up with “something completely different”, to quote John Cleese. An Airbus A321 will operate the first service with the new look on April 5, with more liveries to follow soon. Condor unveils striping new livery.
Condor revealed the new livery of April 4, probably just to make sure that it isn’t seen as some kind of April Fools joke. While the stripes may look ‘just’ funny, there actually has been some careful thinking about it. As a leisure airline, Condor operates to sunny destinations and beaches, so the livery is meant to connect with that.
Its press release says: “Inspired by parasols, bath towels, and beach chairs, Condor is evolving into a distinctive and unique vacation airline.” And it quotes CEO Ralf Teckentrup: “We want to express this unmistakably through our corporate identity: Condor is vacation and Condor is unmistakable – like our new design, with which we are now launching into the future. Our new trademark is stripes, our figurative mark stands for our origin and the colors for diversity. It has always made Condor unique and is therefore also reflected in our claim: Passion is our compass.”
The livery is a conception of the Berlin agency of Remo Masala. He has stuck to the traditional corporate colors yellow and blue that have been part of Condor’s heritage and the days when it operated as a subsidiary of Lufthansa. Masala added some grey, but the aircraft will look rather different. There are five variations of the stripes. The white and green one called ‘Island’ will be on the first A330-900 that is to be delivered new to Condor this fall. But the first to actually enter service will be an A321 with white and yellow ‘Sunshine’ stripes that operates to Lanzarote on Tuesday, April 5. The aircraft arrived today in Frankfurt, straight from the paintshop in Maastricht (The Netherlands).
Some of Condor’s Boeing 757-200s will get the ‘Passion’ livery. (Condor)
Five Boeing 757s, A320s, and A321s will be repainted in the coming weeks with the white and gold ‘Beach’, white and blue ‘Sea’, and white and red ‘Passion’ livery. This brings to six the number of repainted aircraft this upcoming season.
Back on track after turbulent times
Condor has had a turbulent two years. After the bankruptcy of parent Thomas Cook in September 2019, it was bailed out by the government of the state of Hessen in April 2020. This happened only a few months after a take-over plan by Polish Aviation Group which also owns LOT Polish Airlines failed amidst the first Covid-crisis. In May 2021, asset management group Attestor purchased 51 percent of Condor, with the state of Hessen through SG Luftfahrtgesellschaft retaining 49 percent.
The first Airbus A330-900 to join Condor this autumn will have the white and green ‘Island’ livery. (Condor)
Attestor immediately invested in Condor, announcing a director order for seven A330-900s and leasing another nine from Avolon and Altavair. Between the autumn of 2022 and 2024, they will replace the aging Boeing 767s. As a stop-gap until the delivery of the A330neos, Condor has leased two A330-200s, one each from Avolon and Altavair, and will get another two for the coming summer season.
Sixteen North American destinations on the summer roster
The carrier has included sixteen destinations in the US and Canada in its summer schedule, including New York, Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco, Toronto, and Vancouver, all served from Frankfurt. In Europe, Palma de Mallorca features prominently on the schedule as Condors offers 125 weekly services from multiple airports in Germany, Vienna (Austria), and Zürich (Switzerland). Düsseldorf will remain its main base. In January, Condor announced the recruitment of 150 cabin crew for two-year contracts that can be extended. The airline has been hiring and training some 180 new pilots, in view of the arrival of the A330-900s.
As for the new livery, the jury is out to those on social media to judge it and which always makes some good hits. Recently, Icelandair received much criticism for its new livery that also features different colors but which was seen as boring by many. At least that’s not something you can say of Condor’s new one.
Active as a journalist since 1987, with a background in newspapers, magazines, and a regional news station, Richard has been covering commercial aviation on a freelance basis since late 2016.
Richard is contributing to AirInsight since December 2018. He also writes for Airliner World, Aviation News, Piloot & Vliegtuig, and Luchtvaartnieuws Magazine. Twitter: @rschuur_aero.
Very bold and catchy livery. Condor have done away with the usual horizontal cheat lines and traditional Eurowhite liveries for something that will certainly standout on an airport apron!
I welcome liveries which aren’t just plain white with a logo… it’ll be awesome once they adapt their soft product & service pulling the deck chair and beach towel inspired branding onboard the aircraft. ?
Holy Fruit Stripe Gum!!!
The Condor livery stands out very well.
It’s much nicer than the easyjet livery that looks like something done by an infant.