Air France Group this week announced the new brand for their regional operations, currently being operated by Brit Air, Regional and Airlinair. Hop! A young, vibrant looking brand will act as one of Air France’s new 3 airline concept, also featuring Air France and Transavia. Hop! is forming the regional part of the network, focussing heavily on high frequency regional routes (Over 530 flights a day to 136 destinations) with a fleet of 98 aircraft. The new amalgamation means that this instant airline will have over 3,000 staff working for them.
So, this is the creation of Brandimage, a branding company that has worked with the Air France group before (also working on the Air France lounge.) The new brand was formed to give the impression of “rapidity and ease” with which travelers can get from point A to B. The press release goes on to state “Synonymous with agility, HOP! illustrates its capacity to bounce back and adapt to customers’ needs. The simple typography and red colouring featured in the HOP! logo illustrates the Company’s flexibility in a creative and playful manner. Positioned alongside a slanted exclamation mark, symbolizing an aircraft’s take-off, HOP! illustrates an ambition for reactivity and mobility.”
It is a nice idea, and nicely executed – this isn’t just some design fluff, the emotion you feel when looking at the brand is one of comfort, and on trend. The Red white and blue tail still fits with the Air France family, and the logo echoes the red swash found in Air France’s logo. The typeface is fairly timeless and there seems to be huge brand synergy. Even the uniforms are great! This is actually where Air France have been quite clever, in creating this younger ‘hipper’ brand, they have actually de-aged the mother brand of Air France. It shows the group has a bit of levity behind it and even a sense of humour, something perhaps the ‘chic’ airline has been lacking. Looking deeper into the brand, such as the website, there is a similarity to once super cool late great flyBaboo in their brand ethos. Hopefully this brand won’t go the same way.
It’s fairly safe to say this brand will be around for a while, and will quickly find its feet. The Franco-powerhouse supporting the brand to start with will help the airline really find its voice in Europe, and it is a brand we look forward to seeing grow over the next few years.
TheDesignAir 
Nice brand, I agree. From a purely aesthetic point of view, I find it quite annoying though that the angle of the exclamation mark and the angle of the Air France ‘swoosh’ do not match. You only see it on the fuselage, not on the website. But still annoying.
I like the name. Well chosen. ‘Allez-hop!’