Airline Livery and Airline Branding: Part 3

For the third installment of our “Airline Livery and Airline Branding” investigative series, we look at a few commercial airline brands and liveries in a time warp. For three of the planes on our list today, that time warp goes backwards to decades past; the fourth has warped ahead with modern-generic stylings.

American Airlines livery
Please forgive American Airlines - they’ve been around since 1930, so it’s not entirely their fault that they’re stuck in the past. American Airlines’ shiny silver aircrafts are easily recognisable among other airlines’ painted fleets; we’re just not sure that’s a good thing.

Supposedly, American Airlines planes are unpainted for two reasons: 1.) The powers that be think painted planes are ugly, and 2.) It saves money by using less fuel (Air Canada’s own research in November 2005 begs to differ on this, pointing out that the fuel saved is counterbalanced by the increased cost of polishing the aluminum fuselage). At any rate, here we are critiquing one of the most outdated liveries on the planet.

American Airlines gets points for distinctiveness but that’s about it. The logo is iconic but could still use an update from its 1960s design, and the color scheme is boring and banal.

American Airlines branding grade: C-

Continental Airlines livery
Like other major U.S. airlines, Continental chose branding circa 1960-70 and have stuck with it through the years (and bankruptcies). The resulting aircraft livery is a mixed bag of opinions.

First and foremost, the look of the planes is outdated. Whilst arguments can be made that there is no need to update an “iconic” look, Continental Airlines is not nearly as iconic as other airlines (e.g. American Airlines). Their planes stand out, but are simultaneously forgettable moments later.

What Continental does have going for it is that their planes look better from the sky than on the ground. The underbelly is “primer grey” in color with white on top and a gold cheatline running the length of the aircraft. The tail section is navy blue with a gold outline of a globe, and the wing tips of the aircraft are accented with the same blue and gold. Still, Continental’s livery and aircraft branding fall afoul in much the same way that other airlines do - it fails to pull the whole package together. The tail could just as easily belong to a different company and no one would be the wiser; the only place Continental earns points here is for staying away from pseudo-patriotic red-white-blue color schemes that have become trite around the world.

Continental Airlines branding grade: C

Korean Air livery
Take one look at the Korean Air livery and you can guess in which decade it was last redesigned - the 1980s. Sporting a cyan-colored body with a thick silver cheatline and grey underbelly, these planes certainly stand out. Korean Air is also the flag carrier for South Korea, with the South Korean flag (resembling the Pepsi logo, for the uninitiated) in its text logo and on its tail. This livery gets positive marks for nationalism, utilising the flag in a recognisable way.

But as for branding and aircraft appearance in general, unfortunately Korean Air comes off looking almost as dated as some of the other airlines on our list. Although safety is not generally correlated with aircraft age, looking old in the airline industry is never a good thing. Perhaps worse, though, is looking cheap and plastic, which Korean Air also accomplishes.

We love the spirit of the cyan plane and are so glad to see something different from the traditional Eurowhite, but as a complete package it’s not an especially flattering design decision.

Korean Air branding grade: C

All Nippon Airways livery
It’s hard to fault any company for using blue these days because it is safe and common. All Nippon Airways, Japan’s second largest airline, is no exception. Their planes feature a blue stripe with light blue accents running almost the entire length of the plane, all the way up to the all-blue tail with “ANA” branding (which also appears on the body). For a different approach, All Nippon also operate a series of themed jets, painted in shockingly bright colors with popular cartoon characters like Pokemon.

Where All Nippon Airways (sorry, “ANA”) lose points is with brand recognition. Whilst the aircraft livery itself is not unbecoming, passengers outside of Asia are unlikely to recognise “ANA” as any particular airline, and certainly not one from Japan. Maybe the company is trying to differentiate themselves only from Japan Airlines, who sample the red “rising sun” from the Japanese flag. But with destinations to three other continents, a little more culture and pride could go a long way in getting All Nippon recognised as an emerging global brand.

All Nippon Airways branding grade: B-

Follow the other installments of our “Airline Livery and Airline Branding” investigative series: