Lufthansa Cargo has sparked an online furore with its “Name the plane” creative campaign. Three weeks after the open competition for ideas began, Germany’s largest cargo airline has already received 31,000 suggested names for its fleet of aircraft. Aviation fans and creative types all over the world have actually submitted more potential names on the portal www.lufthansa-cargo.com/nametheplane than there are aircraft operating in the sky. The global fleet of all civil aircraft was put at 25,378 in the latest World Airliner Census conducted by Flight International magazine.

 The campaign was prompted by the upcoming delivery of the first brand new Boeing 777F freighter, which Lufthansa Cargo is expecting to arrive in Frankfurt in October. The Lufthansa subsidiary is planning to christen its entire fleet in honour of this – and has put its faith in the wisdom of the masses: "We are overwhelmed by all the creative submissions – and also by how many people worldwide want to give our aircraft distinctive names. We feel we’ve been proved absolutely right to include people interested in air freight in this fascinating project", said Dr. Karl-Rudolf Rupprecht, Operations Director at Lufthansa Cargo.

The new “Name the plane” portal has been publicised in a number of ways, including via social channels such as Facebook, and has already received more than 100,000 hits at this halfway point in the creative competition. The entries to date not only demonstrate fantastic interest, but also limitless imagination. Whether constellations, oceans or famous skyscrapers as aircraft names – once the deadline for submissions (15 July 2013) has passed, a top-class jury of all four Lufthansa Cargo Directors and chief pilot Claus Richter will decide on the names. The winner of "Name the plane" will travel as a VIP guest with a companion to the emotional roll-in ceremony for the brand new freighter. The new name will only be revealed at the ceremony to handover the aircraft to Lufthansa Cargo – and the winner will be one of the first to sit in the captain’s seat.