Gulf Air, once the cream of the crop in the Middle East, sadly started to slip against the backdrop of the now globally-famous ‘ME Three’. Ageing hard products and a limited route network meant the carrier was very rarely the top of passengers preferences. However, things might be about to change. Gone the heavy golden…
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The process might have taken 7 months but after 1,415 submitted ideas were whittled down to one, a single A320 took 14 days out of its schedule to be painted up as the winning livery of the ‘Belgian Icon’ contest. Named ‘Aerosmurf’, this unique design by Italian Marta Mascellani, was chosen by the public from…
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Hawaiian Airlines announced it will purchase 10 Boeing 787-9 aircraft with purchase rights for an additional 10 aircraft. The first fuel-efficient, lightweight, passenger-friendly “Dreamliner” is scheduled to arrive in the first quarter of 2021. Hawaiian has selected the General Electric GEnx engine to power the additions to its fleet. “The Dreamliner combines excellent comfort for our…
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Air Italy will become the new brand for Meridiana, Italy’s legacy carrier that currently competes with Alitalia. 49% owned by Qatar Airways, the airline has announced an extensive growth plan and inject of new aircraft including 5 A330 aircraft from Qatar Airways. The images at the launch show off fully-flat beds, a 31″ seat pitch…
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Yesterday Qantas revealed a striking new special livery for a brand new 787-9 Dreamliner being delivered to the airline. Comprised of approximately 5,000 dots (get counting!), the new design is striking both from near and afar. The new livery features the work of the late Northern Territory artist and senior Anmatyerre woman, Emily Kame Kngwarreye.…
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Today saw Lufthansa launch its new livery in an event in Cape Town. While many will probably like this new clean, monochromatic paint scheme, we can’t help but feel a little disappointed to see such an iconic livery be literally whitewashed. Sure, almost all liveries grow on us with time, but that doesn’t stop us…
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Emirates has unveiled the first of three new aircraft liveries in its fleet dedicated to Expo 2020 Dubai, of which Emirates is the Official Airline Partner. The decal was installed on A6-EPK, an Emirates Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, at the Emirates Engineering hangar. The Expo decal applied on the Boeing 777 covers over 40% of the…
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Hawaiian Airlines has now received it’s first A321neo in the carrier’s brand new livery including new silver lei around the fuselage. A team of Hawaiian Airlines employees took the long trip from the tropical island state all the way to the Airbus facility in Hamburg, Germany, to pick up the new aircraft and begin its journey…
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Now if Legally Blonde created an airline it would probably look and sound a little like Westjet’s Ultra-low cost carrier ‘Swoop’. Sporting a large wave through the logo (that we can’t help but see a Trump-esque hairdo – once seen, never unseen) the airline has embraced pink as their brand colour. The airline will…
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Belgium seems to be the spawning ground of creativity, that is if Brussels Airlines has anything to do with it. The airline has announced the selection of their fifth special livery aircraft, this time from members of the public who were invited to design their latest aircraft livery. The winning design by Italian student Marta Mascellani…
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September 14th saw TAP Portugal return to its original brand ‘TAP Air Portugal’ in a bid to increase awareness of the brand as an airline outside of its core Portuguese market. The full name actually stands for “Transportes Aéreos Portugueses – Air Portugal” (roughly speaking the same name twice). The return to the use of…
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Last week saw not only the arrival of Hong Kong Airlines brand new lounge, but also their very first of 21 A350 aircraft. The airline is embracing the aircraft to support its international development, cherry-picking long-haul destinations that strategically support its future growth. The airline is putting emphasis on developing routes to North America and…
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Finnair have continued their long-standing relationship with Finnish design and textile company Marimekko with the introduction of their 11th A350, joining the fleet in late September. Titled ‘Kivet’, the aircraft isn’t the first aircraft to sport a special Marimekko design, however it is the first for the next generation Airbus aircraft. While the inside of…
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Air France’s latest venture, originally called Boost, and now officially titled Joon, is the carrier’s attempt to reduce operating costs and compete with the growth of younger, less expensive airlines now flying medium and long-haul routes around the world. The new carrier will mirror the likes of Air Asia X, Norwegian, Singapore Airlines’ Scoot Qantas’…
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In a first first of a series of one-off events, passengers who embarked today on TAP Portugal’s special “Portugal” retrojet aircraft took a surprise trip back to the 1970s. As part of celebrations for its 72 years in the business, TAP invited passengers on-board its retro-styled “Portugal” aircraft headed to Toronto, to go back to…
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EL AL was never really seen as a design-led airline, but as we showcased recently, the carrier has recently pushed itself firmly in the right direction. The reveal of the 787-9 product which will be taking to the skies soon demonstrates EL AL’s determination to be taken seriously. Working with EL AL, London based PriestmanGoode…
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Icelandair have introduced a pretty ‘cool’ aircraft to celebrate their 80th year flying. The 757-200, which took 2500 man-hours to paint, is named after the largest glacier in the whole of Europe. Titled “Vatnajökull” (easy for us to say) the new livery will bring one of Iceland’s most famous landmarks across the carrier’s ever expanding…
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Today saw Hawaiian Airlines bring their latest livery and logo to the skies emblazened on a freshly-painted Boeing 717. The new livery has been painstakingly refreshed to bring the carrier’s Aloha spirit forward into the 21st century. Pualani (Flower of the Sky), the beloved icon of Hawaiian’s brand for more than four decades “continues to…
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Meet the world’s first Flying Honu. As part of ANA’s competition to design a special one off livery for their new A380, the winner has been selected to celebrate the Tokyo-Honolulu route that the aircraft will fly. The design will see the largest possible animal painted on a plane, far larger than the Alaska Airlines…
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As Air Canada’s revealed its new livery reveal, we raise the question, has the continuing trend of ‘Eurowhite’ liveries started to draw to a close? It was actually back in 1965 that Braniff International launched their ‘End of the plain plane’ advertising campaign – pointing out that their brightly coloured aircraft and Pucci uniforms were a unique selling…
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Today, in a simultaneous cross-country launch in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, Air Canada unveiled for its customers and employees a new livery inspired by Canada for its entire fleet, new uniforms for its employees, and a taste of some of the new onboard menu offerings that its customers can look forward to. “Air Canada’s new livery signals a pivotal inflection point in our…
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Air France saw the launch of its first 787-9 commercial flight between Paris CDG and London Heathrow today. TheDesignAir was invited to greet the aircraft in London this morning. We were also allowed to take a look around the new aircraft type for the carrier, that will eventually start to form its long haul product.…
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When Alaska and Virgin America, finally got the green light to merge, it gave rise to a lot of confused brand loyal travellers not knowing what the merger would mean. So Hornall Anderson stepped in to help explain how the different brands would work together through the transition, and work in partnership with Alaska Air for…
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Air Calédonie, the domestic airline of New Caledonia has just had a new ATR 72-600 delivered, this time sporting a brand new livery. You may not have heard of the South Pacific carrier, but its existed for over 60 years. Air Calédonie and ATR actually started a long-term partnership in 1986, when the first ATR 42…
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Qantas today revealed a new livery and brand image for the carrier. This is only the fifth time the iconic red-and-white ‘Roo’ tail of Qantas aircraft has been updated since it was first introduced in 1944. The last update was actually more recent than you might realise, as it was tweaked with the introduction of the Airbus A380 back…
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Part two of TheDesignAir’s exclusive series on the making of Cathay Dragon. Read Part One here. Cathay Pacific and newly branded Cathay Dragon’s synergies may seem completely obvious to passengers who have flown on both airlines. However to entice new customers to experience the two airlines, so similar and yet distinctly different brought a host of…
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For those who have an interest in Mexican archaeology and anthropology, you may get a little excited to see one of Mexico’s most famous deities adorning Aeromexico’s brand new 787-9. Named Quetzalcoatl, meaning “Feathered Serpent,” the new livery was the winning design from the carrier’s ‘Design in the Air’ competition. Taking an eye-watering nine days to…
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The aircraft that the new LATAM livery was truly “designed for” has been revealed in Toulouse yesterday. LATAM Airlines Group received its fourth Airbus A350 XWB but it is the first to bear the LATAM Airlines livery, alongside its smaller sibling the brand new A320 Neo. In December 2015, LATAM Airlines Group became the first airline…
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ANA announced today that it will reveal another new Star Wars themed aircraft to its fleet, adding to its three existing planes that have Star Wars characters as livery. The latest droid to grow wings is C-3PO, one of the only characters to be featured in every single Star Wars film so far. As part of the…
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KLM It may have happened a few weeks ago, but if you missed it, KLM recently revealed their “Orange Pride” aircraft. On one special 777-300ER, the well-known KLM Blue was replaced on half of the fuselage with the nations orange colour. The keel line running along the fuselage has also been adapted to reflect the nations…
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