Lufthansa Unveils 100-Year Anniversary Livery

Lufthansa has revealed the special livery it will fly during its centenary year in 2026. The design was unveiled on a new Boeing 787-9, registration D-ABPU, which was painted at Boeing's plant in Charleston, South Carolina, after final assembly. The aircraft will lead a small "anniversary fleet" marking 100 years since the first Luft Hansa was founded in 1926.

The design

The livery uses a dark blue fuselage with an oversized white version of the Lufthansa crane, the airline's emblem since the 1920s. The crane is drawn so that its outstretched wings run into the aircraft's own wings, making the bird span most of the airframe. A large "100" is painted on the left side of the fuselage, the dates "1926 | 2026" appear on the right side, and a further "100" is painted on the underside so that it can be seen from the ground.

The blue-and-white scheme builds on the brand design Lufthansa introduced in 2018, when it dropped the yellow from its tail and switched to a darker blue. The special livery takes that colour scheme and enlarges the crane across the whole aircraft.

Jens Ritter, chief executive of Lufthansa Airlines, presented the livery as a tribute to the airline's history and to the staff who run it, describing the crane as a symbol of safety, pioneering spirit and premium quality.

One hundred years of Lufthansa

The first Deutsche Luft Hansa was formed in Berlin on 6 January 1926 through the merger of Junkers Luftverkehr and Deutsche Aero Lloyd. Its first scheduled flights left Berlin-Tempelhof on 6 April 1926, one to Zurich and one to Cologne. That company was wound up after the Second World War. Today's Deutsche Lufthansa AG was established in Cologne on 6 January 1953 and began flying in 1955. It later acquired the original name and crane logo.

Lufthansa has said it will use the anniversary to examine its history in full, including the role the first Luft Hansa played under the Nazi regime. The year's programme includes a permanent exhibition at the Lufthansa Group's Hangar One, a history book and events for customers and employees, under the motto "We are the Journey".

The aircraft and the anniversary fleet

D-ABPU is one of the Boeing 787-9s Lufthansa has been adding to its long-haul fleet since 2022. Its registration gives it the nickname "Papa Uniform" in the phonetic alphabet. Lufthansa initially said the aircraft would be delivered in November and enter service in December.

The 787 is the first of six aircraft that Lufthansa plans to paint in the same design during 2026, covering its most important fleet types:

• Boeing 787-9
• Airbus A380
• Airbus A350-1000
• Airbus A350-900
• Airbus A320
• Boeing 747-8

Special liveries are a common way for airlines to mark anniversaries. They cost more than a standard repaint because of the design work and the extra time in the paint shop, but they attract wide coverage from passengers and spotters, which is the point for a brand marking a milestone of this size.

What has happened since

The delivery schedule moved back by about a month. Before delivery the aircraft was flown from Charleston to Boeing's Everett plant in Washington state, and it landed in Frankfurt on 23 December 2025. It entered scheduled service on 20 January 2026 with a flight to Mumbai.

The rest of the anniversary fleet followed through early 2026:

• An Airbus A320neo (D-AING) arrived in Frankfurt on 19 January 2026, and an A350-900 (D-AIXL) was due in Munich on 3 February. A second A320neo and an A380 followed in late February.
• A Boeing 747-8 (D-ABYN), painted in San Bernardino, California, arrived in Frankfurt on 5 March 2026 and entered service the next day on the Los Angeles route.
• On 6 April 2026, exactly 100 years after the first flights, D-ABPU and D-AIXL flew special flights LH1926 and LH2026 from Berlin Brandenburg, retracing the 1926 routes to Zurich and Cologne. At a ceremony before departure, Berlin's Governing Mayor Kai Wegner named the 787 "Berlin".
• Lufthansa's first Airbus A350-1000, D-AIFA "Deutschland", was painted in the anniversary design in Toulouse and was scheduled to be transferred to Munich in autumn 2026 as the seventh and final aircraft in the fleet. It is also the 700th aircraft Airbus has delivered to the Lufthansa Group.

Separately, Lufthansa painted an Airbus A321neo, D-AIEM "Hamm", with motifs designed by its own employees within the same crane design. Details of the anniversary fleet are published in the Lufthansa Group newsroom.