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Himmelbahn and Italiaggio A320s 2002-2006


Himmelbahn and Italiaggio A320s 2002-2006

Entering the new millennium, Himmelbahn executives were confident that their success in the business market would continue. They were primed for success. Or so they thought. However, the year 2001 heralded the near death of Nicholas Cage, destruction of one of the world's tallest buildings, and a poor forecast for the future of the travel industry. Himmelbahn had the cash on hand to ride the travel downturn but the board wanted a plan for the future and believed that the particularly hard hit leisure travel segment presented opportunities for a market re-alignment once demand recovered. Finding inroads to this market would secure a slice of a market in which Himmelbahn had never excelled. However, a problem remained ... Germany was not a top tourist destination in Europe at the time.
Meanwhile, across the Alps in Rome, the 9/11 downtown hit Italiaggio at a bad time, throwing the carrier into a serious cash crunch. Most of the airline's fleet spent the months immediately after 9/11 grounded. The airline persisted in losing money nonetheless. The government refused to bail out the carrier and looked for a buyer.
Thus, the stage was set for an unlikely merger. Italiaggio needed cash and Himmelbahn wanted a offer more flights to popular tourist destinations. Himmelbahn's board seized the opportunity and by Christmas 2001, merger talks had reached late stages. The two brands would remain separate (for the time being) but would now both operate under the holding company KEF or Konsolidiert Europäische Fluggesellschaften (Consolidated European Airlines). Himmelbahn stocks were exchanged for new KEF stocks and the Italian government's 51% share in Italiaggio was reduced to 25% in the new group.
There were plans for the two airlines to merge into one customer facing entity at a later time and so the merger brought about new liveries for both carriers involved in the merger. For Italiaggio, the changes were not severe, but Himmelbahn lost its iconic bird logo. The similar brand identities were controversial but did receive a majority of shareholder support. Once the merger was publicly announced and the new brands were revealed, detractors were out in force almost immediately. Germans were particularly peeved that their flag carrier had purchased another airline just to adopt that airline's livery with a changed colour scheme. The Italiaggio livery would last the test of time for over a decade but there was an exceptional push to return Himmelbahn's bird to its rightful place on company aircraft and so the first KEF livery would last just 4 years. The unpopular liveries rolled out very slowly as KEF hoped to hoard cash to stem the impacts of the recession meaning that Italiaggio operated with 3 different, although similar, liveries in this period and many aircraft (particularly widebodies) wore the old Himmelbahn livery until 2006 when a new Himmelbahn livery brought back the logo. In addition to branding troubles, KEF faced scrutiny as the first European mega-carrier and it was accused by many of intentionally sullying the images of both Germany and Italy's national airlines by the sorts of people who already opposed centralisation and the EU.
[Edits: darker grey on the 21 and double thick bottom cheatline]



    It's a bit dull, but realistic. Very nice work!

    Germany is a little bit off but not inconceivable

    It's a bit dull, but realistic. Very nice work!

    That's kind of the point - not every livery is an eyecatcher and I'm glad that the realism of the KEF mistake is appreciated (don't worry I plan to make the '06 much nicer)

    Germany is a little bit off but not inconceivable

    I thought it looked a little sketch too and I think the reason why was the grey so there's more gray now and it's darker (makes it look a bit like a Belgian airline but I think its better overall let me know what you think)
     

    nice work