This week’s featured link:
Heritage meets the future. Lufthansa presents a new brand design. – Lufthansa Group Newsroom
The new Lufthansa livery is out and it’s… well, it’s fine. Basically, the tail just changed to a dark blue with the crane logo now in white. That’s it. There are other branding elements that will update as well, but it’s hardly the massive change that they seem to be pitching. Here’s a video showing the repainting.
I've seen people up in arms about how terrible it is, but it's really not. It just seems somewhat unnecessary. I can only wonder if this is the beginning of a common-branding scheme for the whole group. Will SWISS now have a red tail with the cross in white just like this? Maybe Austrian could do a light blue tail with the arrow. That might look sharp if they all lined up that way.
Two for the road:
JetBlue Promises Fight Against Fines For Late Long Beach Flights -
Long Beach Grunion Gazette
Don't look now, but JetBlue's latest West Coast strategy is... anger. After years of receiving what it will argue is unfair treatment in Long Beach, the bear is waking up. And it's not happy. The city is looking to tweak the noise ordinance, and JetBlue thinks that this unfairly targets the airline. While JetBlue used to quietly pay its noise violation fines, it sounds like that's not the case anymore. Now it's challenging the fines that are levied due to weather in other cities, and this may end up in court. JetBlue has been pushed too far, it seems, and that could very well mean drama in Long Beach for some time.
Book Worth Reading:
Up, Up and Astray -
written by Jim Spaeth
I don't do book reviews here on the blog, but I'm going to start posting links here when I read something I think you might like. First up is "Up, Up and Astray," Jim Spaeth's memoir of his time working at TWA in the late 1960s and early 1970s. [Note: Jim sent me a copy for free.] While it starts slow with Jim's early life, it picks up the pace nicely once he signs on with TWA. Jim really settles into his element when he becomes a Director of Customer Service (an on-aircraft position) and moves to Los Angeles. There are the requisite stories of booze, women, and travel to far flung places as you'd hope, but there's more than that. This isn't just a rosy picture of why things were so much better; it's an honest account of life through one man's eyes. This isn't a literary masterpiece nor is it trying to be. It's just a welcome look back that's a light and enjoyable read.