Up to now it has been a closely guarded secret, but with the completion of the painting of the first Lufthansa Airbus A380 on 5th February it can be revealed that the aircraft bears the name “Frankfurt am Main”. Lufthansa’s second A380, which arrived at the Airbus facility in Hamburg-Finkenwerder, was named “Munchen”. “We are looking forward to accepting delivery of our new flagship, which will open up an entirely new dimension in air travel for our passengers,” says Karl Ulrich Gar-nadt, a member of the Lufthansa German Airlines Board. “The choice of names underlines the central importance of our two major hubs.“ In May, the Airbus with the registration D-AIMA will land for the first time in Frankfurt, its namesake city on the River Main, before entering scheduled service with Lufthansa, mainly on routes to Asia and North America.

Just like the interior of the new aircraft, the A380 livery incorporates a wealth of technical finesse. The sophisticated paint system consists of a primer, a thinner and a hardener. Air-bus only mixes these three components immediately before the paint is sprayed on with electrostatic pistols. This method enables fast-drying paint to be used and at the same time reduces the amount of paint needed by about 200 litres. Although the complete paint scheme covers a surface area of about 3,500 sq. metres and includes the Lufthansa logo, which measures 180 cm in height, the total weight of the paint is only about 650 kg, since it is thinner than a human hair.

A competition to find a catchy nickname for the Airbus A380 has already been launched at lufthansa.com/a380 under the motto “Be part of it”. Entrants stand a chance of becoming a millionaire as the winner will receive one million Miles&More award miles. Visitors to the website also have access to exclusive films, photos and reportages that offer fas-cinating insights into a wide range of topics relating to the A380.