On February 8, Lufthansa’s D-ABYA took off from Frankfurt for a day-long tour of German airports to show off the new livery design unveiled by the airline earlier in the week.
I was fortunate enough to be part of a photographer group that received special permission to be on the infield of the airport to catch her taking off. This video captures the moments that she pulled away from Frankfurt.
As you watch the video, you’ll hear a slighty annoying ‘machine gunning’ noise. That is my camera’s shutter going off while I was taking pictures. I had a Go-Pro mounted on my flash-shoe so that I could take photos and capture video at the same time.
Earlier today Lufthansa’s D-ABYA, a 747-8i, took to the skies for a tour of Germany as she showed off the airline’s new livery design. After her 9 hour showcase, which included stops or touch and goes at a variety of German airports, she returned to Frankfurt at approximately 5p local time. Once again, Frankfurt Airport provided an ‘all access’ experience so that I could capture her return.
Unfortunately, the best light of the day was gone, and what was a beautiful day at the beginning, became a hazy and overcast one by sunset. It was one of the very few things that we actually did not have control of today.
After touchdown, the unexpected bonus came in the form of being able to follow D-ABYA as she taxied off the runway and to her parking spot on the ramp before shutting down for the evening. It amounted to a fairly high speed chase as we tried to keep up, though she did stop a few times to pose for the perfect photo. Never before, and perhaps never again, will I be in the kind of position that I was today when it comes to photographing aircraft, so I took full advantage.
Tomorrow, I step aboard D-ABYA for her flight to New York’s JFK along with a Lufthansa crew that will be hosting a ‘Flying Lab’ during the flight that will highlight the new look of the livery as well as go into detail on enhancements that are taking place inside Lufthansa aircraft this year. You can tune in to the event and watch it live on Lufthansa’s Facebook book page. The flight is LH400 departing at 10:50a from Frankfurt.
Today marked a new benchmark for my planespotting. Thanks to Lufthansa and Frankfurt Airport, I was granted what for me was unprecedented access to the airport. No place was off limits to me as long as I didn’t step in front of a moving aircraft. Simply Wow. You have to be somewhat of an ‘Avgeek’ to understand what this all means! 🙂
The day started before sunrise at the ramp where D-ABYA was being prepared for her tour of Germany, designed to show off Lufthansa’s new livery. One thing that struck me today looking at her at the gate, parked next to other LH aircraft wearing the previous livery, was that the livery looks REALLY, REALLY good. The contrast between the newer, sleeker look and the previous version is far greater than I thought it would be. The new look simply gives the airplane a very polished and sophisticated look. For those that think they don’t like the livery, I think their minds will change over time.
So without any other words, here are some of my favorite shots from this morning’s session. Several hundred photos were taken and these are the ones that stand out right now. I’ll be back on the tarmac to watch her land later today and I get to fly her home tomorrow….not a bad 48 hours!
In Frankfurt today, Lufthansa pulled out all the stops and threw a proper party to officially unveil their new logo when D-ABYA was put on display in Hangar 7.
Though the livery has been ‘public’ for several days, today was the first time that a significant amount of people had a chance to finally see her in person, officially carrying the new look of Lufthansa.
Earlier in the day, I attended a press briefing hosted by Lufthansa’s CEO, Carsten Spohr that discussed some of the logic and rationale behind the decision to update the look. Some of his comments were expected, yet some raised an eyebrow. I’ll go into greater detail about his comments in another post. I’ll also talk about what passengers can expect once they get aboard a Lufthansa aircraft starting this Spring. All I can say at this point is that I came away impressed with what is planned and look forward to seeing the rollout.
For now, because I’m working on no sleep over the last 48 hours, I’ll leave you with these images from tonight’s party to whet your appetite. I’ll have a lot more from today’s events to talk about. Tomorrow I’ll have exclusive shots of ‘YA’ on the ramp at Frankfurt as she prepares for her Tour Of Germany. If I’m lucky, I might get to feel her jet blast as she scoots past me. Fingers crossed!
Special light effects danced all over the fuselage…..
Lufthansa has updated their summer timetable to reflect a wide variety of increased flights to a majority of their European destinations. This update suggests that LH is substantially increasing flights and capacity for the Summer of 2018 as compared to their 2017 timetable for the same period. The changes reflect service from Frankfurt and Munich.
Most of these changes take effect on March 25 unless other dates are indicated. These changes will be in effect until updates are made for the 2018/19 Winter timetable that we’ll see published sometime later this summer.
Frankfurt – Alicante effective between July 17 and August 1 will increase from 3x/week to 5x/week. Frankfurt – Athens increases from 3x/day to 4x/day Frankfurt – Budapest Increases from 5x/day to 6x/day Frankfurt – Bordeaux Increases from 2x/week to 7x/week Frankfurt – Bydgoszcz Increases from 6x/week to 7x/week Frankfurt – Dubrovnik beginning April 29 will increase from 4x/week to 5x/week Frankfurt – Gdansk Increases from 14x/week to 18x/week Frankfurt – Kiev Increases from 2x/day to 3x/day Frankfurt – Krakow Increases from 4x/day to 5x/day Frankfurt – Madrid Increases from 28x/week to 31x/week Frankfurt – Marseille Increases from 2x/day to 3x/day Frankfurt – Milan Malpensa increases from 5x/day to 6x/day (WEEKDAYS ONLY) Frankfurt – Naples Increases from 18x/week to 20x/week Frankfurt – Olbia between July 30 and August 24 will increase from 4x/week to 7x/week. Frankfurt – Palma Mallorca Increases from 14x/week to 19x/week Frankfurt – Pula beginning April 27 will increase from 2x/week to 3x/week Frankfurt – Reykjavik effective between May 25 and September 12 will increase from 6x/week to 7x/week. Frankfurt – Rome Increases from 6x/day to 7x/day Frankfurt – Sofia Increases from 2x/day to 3x/day Frankfurt – Split effective between July 31 and August 23 will increase from 5x/week to 7x/week Frankfurt – Toulouse Increases from 3x/day to 4x/day Frankfurt – Valencia Increases from 2x/day to 3x/day (WEEKDAYS ONLY) Munich – Ancona beginning April 16 will increase from 2x/day to 3x/day Munich – Athens Increases from 23x/week to 25x/week Munich – Barcelona Increases from 5x/day to 6x/day Munich – Bilbao Increases from 3x/day to 4x/day Munich – Catania Increases from 7x/week to 8x/week Munich – Cagliari effective between June 29 and July 27 will increase from 4x/week to 5x/week Munich – Corfu effective between July 14 and September 8 will increase from 1x/week to 2x/week Munich – Debrecen Increases from 3x/week to 5x/week Munich – Dublin Increases from 13/x week to 14x/week Munich – Dubrovnik beginning May 6 will increase from 7x/week to 8x/week Munich – Gdansk Increases from 3x/day to 4x/day Munich – Genoa Increases from 2x/day to 3x/day Munich – Glasgow Increase from 4x/week to 5x/week Munich – Helsinki Increases from 3x/week to 4x/week Munich – Ibiza effective between July 16 and September 3 will increase from 4x/week to 5x/week Munich – Larnaca effective between July 17 and August 21 will increase from 5x/week to 7x/week Munich – Lisbon Increases from 14x/week to 20x/week Munich – Lyon Increases from 26x/week to 28x/week Munich – Malaga Increases from 5x/week to 7x/week, then beginning on April 7 increases to 9x/week Munich – Nice Increases from 27x/week to 28x/week Munich – Palermo Increases from 6x/week to 7x/week Munich – Palma Mallorca Increases from 14x/week to 16x/week Munich – Pisa Increases from 10x/week to 14x/week Munich – Pula effective between May 19 and October 7 will increase from 1x/week to 2x/week Munich – Rzeszow beginning May 7 increases from 7x/week to 11x/week Munich – Santiago de Compostela Increases from 1x/week to 2x/week Munich – Sibiu Increases from 19x/week to 21x/week Munich – Split beginning May 5 increases from 7/week to 8x/week
Munich – Valencia Increases from 4x/week to 7x/week
Munich – Zadar effective between May 19 and October 6 will increase from 2x/week to 3x/week