Four Seasons Super-Exclusive Private Jet Revealed

We love a special jet, and there is no more special than Four Season’s little black number revealed today to the world’s press. This is the basically the Orient Express for the 21st century, carefully transporting 52 very exclusive passengers on a money-can’t-buy itinerary of a lifetime. Working in partnership with Four Seasons Hotels, TCS…

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ANA’s Kin To Star Wars

We sense a disturbance in the air… and we love it! We all remember how cool it was when we learned R2-D2 could fly, and well, it’s happening again. All Nippon Airways announced today it will introduce a very special Star Wars livery, with the iconic (and only true link to all Star Wars movies) R2-D2, on its newest…

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Austrian Airlines Launches New Livery And New Brand Direction

Austrian Airlines has quietly announced its new brand in respect for the recent incident with sister airline Germanwings. However, the new brand signals a big change in the Austrian carrier. Marking the fusion of both Austrian Airlines and Tyrolean on April 1, 2015, the new livery, which will be rolled out across the fleet. Dubbed the ‘Red White…

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Introducing Fly Mojo

Bombardier announced today, their latest purchaser of the new CS100 aircraft was a start-up airline flymojo, based out of Johor Bahru, Johor and Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. Just across the straits from Singapore, the airline has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) for the sale and purchase of 20 CS100 aircraft with options for an additional 20 CS100 aircraft. “Born of…

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Blistering Barnacles! Tintin Takes To The Skies

Today Brussels Airlines and Moulinsart unveiled something that we absolutely adore. An Airbus A320 with a livery inspired by the world famous Belgian cartoon character Tintin. Both Belgian companies have worked several months on this unique project, based on the original drawings by the hand of Hergé. Infront of plane enthusiasts and VIP guests, Brussels Airlines and…

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Red Arrows Become A Real Flag Carrier

Perhaps one of the longest lasting unchanged liveries is owned by the Royal Air Force’s world famous Red Arrows. Well, until now. After over 50 years, the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, the Red Arrows, has revealed a new Union flag-inspired design on its world-famous jets. The brand new tailfins on the team’s Hawk aircraft have received…

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Transavia’s Transformation Troubles

Transavia, our wonderfully green-collared friend, has undergone a branding exercise, to refresh and address its commercial objectives.  Mirabeau, a digital agency, was brought on by Transavia to begin work on a new e-commerce platform to increase ancillary sales, improve the conversion of flights and reduce operational costs. Having identified the need to redefine Transavia’s positioning and…

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New Eurowings Brand Painted Up On First Aircraft – But Is It A Good Livery?

Yesterday Eurowings, which is Lufthansa’s newest LCC brand, revealed its first aircraft painted in its new livery. The new-look carrier will start by mirroring the product on offer by sister-airline germanwings. Firstly, a few facts, Eurowings isn’t a new brand. It had been operating since 1994 as a regional carrier for parent company Lufthansa. The new brand is…

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Could This Be The End Of One Of The Prettiest TransAtlantic Liveries?

It was announced at the end of last week that little known Sata International may be undergoing a rebrand. The airline, also known as ‘Sata Air Azores’ is changing it’s image to become ‘Azores Airlines’. Shockingly, this rebrand of the airline is being announced 4 years after the incumbent design was released. Globally speaking, this still…

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Qantas Reveal 70’s Retro Livery In Seattle

Qantas has followed suit of many other airlines over the past few years, unveiling its first ever “retro” inspired livery on one of its brand new Boeing 737 aircraft. The eye catching design is a flying tribute to 70 years of the iconic flying kangaroo logo – a widely recognised symbol of home to millions of intrepid…

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Cathay Pacific Relaunch Powerful Yet Simple New Brand Image

Cathay Pacific have been working on a new brand image for the past few months, and whilst you may be forgiven for going ‘Really?’ we here at thedesignair.net think the subtle difference in the new brand positioning is both striking, powerful and evocative. We have been huge fans of the interior and ground products of the…

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Etihad’s New 787 Livery Shows Us A Little Bit More

We covered the A380 roll out for Etihad a few days ago, but their quick succession in rolling out their 787-9 colours shows the world how the livery transposes onto more regularly-shaped airframes. Last night the airline revealed their new 787-9, a proportionally more aesthetic aircraft, with a tail that has been circulating on social media for a few…

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Etihad Unveil New Livery And Brand Image

The fact Etihad has a new livery is not a secret anymore, with tail fins on both the A380 and 787 surfacing a few weeks back on social media, with speculation rife on whether these were special one off liveries, or a sporty new look for the relatively young carrier. But this evening in Hamburg…

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REPORT: Understanding The Liveries Of The World

Liveries around the world are the calling cards for hundreds of different airlines. For some they are the passengers only interaction with the brand image of the airline, so as they park up at the gates of airports globally, they need to be able to communicate the values and concepts that each airline brand stands for.…

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What’s Yellow And Black And Flies Very Fast?

The new Spirit planes. Spirit are the latest low cost carrier to revisit their branding, just a few days after both frontier and southwest, following a trend that TheDesignAir predicted last week. The new design fits with the new website and brand positioning that has been rolled out, offering a simple bold message, with a…

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The Devil Is In The Detail

By Marisa Garcia | Engineers at Airbus’ A320 Family paint shop in Hamburg, Germany, just developed a unique methodology to radically improve the creative options available to airlines and brand managers by making it possible to directly print livery on the fuselage using inkjet printers–resulting in a faster and more efficient painting process which also allows…

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TheDesignAir Top 10 Liveries of 2014

It’s that time again, and the judges have voted for their Top 10 Liveries for 2014. Each year the judges sort through the best of the best to find out what is hitting the mark. This year some familiar faces return, and some get booted out of the top 10, and there are even a…

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Aircalin, The Latest Pacific Airline To Celebrate Local Culture

Aircalin has taken the new delivery of its latest A320 as an opportunity to relaunch its livery. Another Pacific based airline, like Fiji Airways and O’hana by Hawaiian, has looked at its cultural roots to offer a unique and considered design, celebrating the culture of the New Caledonian islands it flies from. The original livery…

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Airlines Get In To A Football Frenzy

With the world cup soon approaching, national airlines around the world are getting into the spirit and supporting their local teams. Here’s a recap of some of the special liveries over the past few weeks – how many have you seen? Let us know! Brussels Airlines ‘Red Devils’ Brussels Airlines went to town with their…

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Black Is The New… Black

What can you do if you had 5 days, 12 painters and 350 litres of paint. Well, if you are Air New Zealand you could paint your new 787-9 in an ‘All Black’ paint job. Our favourite of the airline’s two new livery designs, this black beauty is well proportioned and striking to look at, With…

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A Beautiful Canadian Goose Spreads Its Wings

Sometimes we come across a beautiful redesign that really is leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of the industry, and this small airline in North Eastern Canada is by far a small diamond in the rough. Where some airlines with a small regional network can wisely invest into making sure their ageing fleet is…

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Epic Air, Bangladesh’s Newest Start-Up Airline

Who? Well, to be honest, we hadn’t heard of them before either, shame on us! Welcome to the freshly released image for Epic Air, a new airline for Bangladesh, who aims to start flying commercially in the latter part of 2014. The livery titled ‘The Colours of Change’ has been designed by long running Seattle-based Teague,…

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Scoot Showcase New 787 Interior and Livery

Thanks to our friends at Australian Business Traveller, we can share the latest news from Asia LCC Scoot. Singapore Airlines’ low-cost offshoot will take delivery of its first Boeing 787-9 in November this year and shift to an all-Boeing 787 fleet by the middle of 2015 as the airline seeks to parlay the Dreamliner’s increased fuel…

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Hong Kong Express Reveal New Identity

Hong Kong Express may have been around for a while now, but it is finally pushing itself away from Hong Kong Airlines who until just recently shared an almost identical livery. As Hong Kong Express pushes itself forward as a true LCC, it was time to shake off its previous image and embrace something new.…

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‘Ohana By Hawaiian Now Painted

  Our friends at Hawaiian have just released a video time-lapse of the painting of their very first ATR. Whilst we announced this a while ago, secretly we’ve been waiting for the chance to see this livery for real. The new aircraft are absolutely stunning and are yet another winning livery for the pacific –…

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Kenya Airways Showcase 787 Interior Including Flatbeds

Just like the new 777’s that Kenya Airways launched late last year, Kenya Airways have released on YouTube a computer generated image of what their new 787’s will be like when they arrive. The first thing that strikes us is the new interior in the Premier World (business class) is the beds are identical to…

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American Airlines Tail Finalised

So the votes are in. American Airlines employees have voted, and the figures have been totted up. The new American tail stays. According to airchive, there were 60,418 voters, which accounts for 60% of their staff. Interestingly, 31,355 people voted in favour of the tail. We can save you the math. That’s 52%. Not exactly…

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American Airlines New Tail Conundrum

It’s no secret that we weren’t fans of American’s new livery when it came out, and although we loved the new 777 premium cabins, we thought the livery was missing the mark, being overtly American, one thing that Internationally has always been a nationalistic stereotype picked up on by the rest of the global community.…

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Royal Brunei Impress With New Dreamliner

Royal Brunei, when we reported on their new livery and look a while ago, didn’t inspire us too much, their artists impressions made the aircraft look flat and badly proportioned. Now we like to think they saw our comments and made a few tweaks, but realistically, we know that the aircraft reality and artists impressions can…

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