AIRWAYS FEATURE Condor
Just when we all thought that the era of bold and distinctive liveries had ended in the 2010s , an airline proves otherwise with one of the most striking and trend-breaking designs the aviation industry has ever seen .
1 The HAECO Vector is the backbone of Condor ’ s hard product in the back cabin on the Airbus A330neo . With the same seat basics , amenities like power ports are added in Premium Economy but not in the standard Economy Class seat .
WE ARE TALKING ABOUT Germany ’ s Condor ( DE ), a leisure carrier that , during the last five years , has evolved from a dreary and struggling company to a brand-new business based on vacations , stripes , and the concept of ‘ affordable luxury ’.
Condor was founded on December 21 , 1955 , as Deutsche Flugdienst GmbH . Interestingly , this is why the airline ’ s IATA code is DE . It didn ’ t adopt the name ‘ Condor ’ until it took over rival ‘ Condor Luftreederei ’ in 1961 .
Since its very first day of operation , Condor has had a very clear and consistent goal : to rise among its peers as the national leader in leisure travel to sunny destinations for German tourists .
In 1956 , the first service departed from Frankfurt Airport ; a Vickers VC-1B Viking lifting off the runway with 20 passengers on a pilgrimage trip to the Holy Land .
The initial story of Condor as an independent airline was very short , to say the least . As the new airline quickly grew by opening leisure flights to the Spanish Canary Islands and Majorca , Lufthansa saw its potential and acquired all its shares between 1959 and 1960 .
From then on , the German flag carrier has helped Condor evolve , secure an enormous 63 % of the national tourism air travel market , and open long-haul flights to Southeast Asia , Africa , and the Caribbean .
With the consolidation of the Jet Age , Condor introduced a revised livery with very close similarities to that of Lufthansa , differing only in the tail shade , bright yellow instead of dark blue .
Until the dawn of the 21st century , Condor had built its fleet around the Boeing 707 and 727 , and had been the first leisure airline to fly the Jumbo Jet . In the 1980s , the carrier took delivery of its first Airbus A300 , Boeing 767 , and the well-known Boeing 757 narrow-body .
The close relationship between Condor and Lufthansa , although each has retained its own distinctive brand , has also enabled Condor to become the latter ’ s ‘ Asian ’ subsidiary , operating flights to Taipei , Taiwan , without jeopardizing Lufthansa ’ s relationship with the People ’ s Republic of China .
FROM LUFTHANSA TO THOMAS COOK
With the turn to the 21st century , Condor Flugdienst went through one of its biggest transformations to date . The Thomas Cook Group took interest in the carrier and began
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