Could Northern Pacific take flight? If so, the Pacific will see another exciting livery in the skies

You won’t be blamed if you’ve not heard of Northern Pacific, however in the past few days it’s been making some waves as it seemingly is starting to ramp up its operations. There’s discussion of a launch event in Anchorage later in the month, where we’ll get to understand a little bit more about this new challenger airline.

Utilising a fleet of 757 aircraft, the airline hopes to mirror Icelandair’s operational model by offering one stop connections from US cities to Asia’s top hubs as well. Much like Reykjavik, Anchorage is strategically positioned for many USA to Asia flights, so if the airline can get it’s pricing model, schedule and product correct it should be on to a winner. Although the 757s are older aircraft, they’re perfectly poised powerful workhorses for these medium haul thin routes.

But in our opinion the proposed branding and livery makes these 757’s look fresh and contemporary, more akin to a private jet than a commercial airline. Visually the duotone design is perfectly balanced, with the elongated black empennage balancing the aircraft so it doesn’t look tail heavy. To us, there’s something reminiscent of both Starflyer and Starlux here and the blue nods to Icelandair too.

Black nacelles and cockpit window racoon mask help further balance the design, and the modern, simplistic logotype treatment at the front is both iconic, fresh and timeless. What we love however, is the addition of the aqua colours on the wingtips and modest ‘N’ logo on the tail. Although two different visuals show it in different positions, so it’s clear this design isn’t finalised.

While onboard rumours suggest there will be a premium cabin, with only 12 seats, it’s most likely this will be a very similar recliner product to Icelandair rather than a fully flat product like JetBlue would offer. But considering a direct flight from Tokyo to Anchorage would exceed 7 hours, there’s a borderline case for the carrier to adopt an economical single-aisle seat like the Thompson Vantage Solo originally conceived by Factorydesign.

One thing is for sure – just like Fiji Airways, Air Tahiti Nui and Hawaiian –with Northern Pacific’s striking, well conceived brand identity and livery concept, the Pacific if going play home to yet another graceful carrier.