Star Bores. How not to do a themed safety video. (Sorry United)

Great news! United Airlines has just released a themed Star Wars safety video. Jumping on the Star Wars bandwagon (which already includes Virgin Atlantic, ANA and Latam, to name just a few) the carrier is celebrating the launch of the Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker by releasing a safety video, special livery and Mileage…

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Virgin Atlantic gets the Star Wars bug, alongside LATAM, with special livery aircraft

It’s a real battle of do you prefer the Dark Side or the rebel Alliance this week as Virgin Atlantic and LATAM both reveal special limited edition liveries to support the opening of Star Wars ‘Galaxy’s Edge’ experience at Walt Disney World Resort. While LATAM have showcased their stormtrooper themed 777, Virgin Atlantic have themed one…

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Brussels Airlines Launches Bruegel, Its Sixth Belgian Icon

The chances are by now if you travel around Europe, you’ve probably seen one of Brussels Airlines ‘Icon’ aircraft at some point over the past few years. After honouring Tintin in 2015, followed by Magritte, the Red Devils, Tomorrowland and the Smurfs, Brussels Airlines has just unveiled another Belgian Icon, a unique aircraft inspired by…

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United Launches Refreshed Livery, Strengthening The Brand, But Not Exactly Setting The Skies Alight

Meet the new U.N.I.T.E.D… oh no wait, that’s just the unfortunate window/logotype placement. United have revealed their latest livery, not on one of the grounded 737 Max aircraft, but one of the 737-800’s with scimitar winglets. “The design is a visual representation of United’s ongoing brand evolution while staying true to the history it has…

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British Airways Special Liveries Continue With Our Personal Favourite

British Airways today welcomed the arrival of the third in its series of four heritage liveries – a Boeing 747 painted in the iconic Landor design, which will be recognisable for many including myself as it flew on British Airways aircraft between 1984-1997. In fact this livery graced the fleet as I used to watch…

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Austrian Rolls Out A Retrojet (Yes, Another Retrojet) And This Won’t Be The Last…

Yes, retrojets, they are the seemingly appearing with increasing frequency. In fact the chances they are popping up on your social feed more often than the never-ending stream of cat memes. So the latest from Austrian might not necessarily be a surprise, but its a welcome addition to the airline’s fleet, anything but one of…

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Battle Of The Emerging ‘Boutique Airlines’

It’s a phrase that some airlines build their business model and service proposition on, but the ‘Boutique’ airline is a seemingly new airline type that will no doubt turn our heads a little more often than legacy carriers, but why is that? While La Compagnie has already built the strap-line ‘Boutique Airline’ into their marketing,…

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Honu, The World’s Largest Flying Turtle, Leaves The Paintshop

Yes, that’s right, ANA’s first ‘Flying Honu’ is almost headed to the skies, with the airline’s first A380 rolling out of the printshop last week. Japan’s largest airline put on a big show in Hamburg as the behemoth revealed itself from its hangar. The new plane is Japan’s first Airbus A380 and sports a Hawaiian green…

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Could This Be The Most Beautiful Livery Launched This Year?

Meet Fakarava, recently rolled out of the paint shop. It’s Air Tahiti Nui’s first ‘Tahitian Dreamliner’ which will start flying for the carrier in November between New Zealand and Tahiti. It features a new livery concept by Futurebrand which stems from the rebrand from Tahitian Studio Alexander Lee. It could possibly be the most beautiful Dreamliner…

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Air Tahiti Nui Calls On FutureBrand And Tahitian Studio Alexander Lee To Rebrand

  Air Tahiti Nui has always been a solid favourite of TheDesignAir, with a boutique airline approach and bold, striking livery that was one of the first Pacific carriers to showcase what a livery and brand can be before the likes of Fiji Airways followed. However, the livery and brand hasn’t really changed for two…

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My My. Austrian Re-brands

The latest airline of the Lufthansa Group to get a fresh new look is Austrian. The airline went through a rebrand only a few years ago, adopting a more friendly, softer approach with the addition of ‘My’ to its brand image. However, in a bid to make a more ‘digital-appropriate’ brand, the airline has removed…

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The Smurfs Take To The Skies Thanks To Brussels Airlines

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 To Introduce 787-9s To Fleet

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 Emerges As New Brand For Meridiana With New Strategic Brand Image

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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Emirates Unveils First Of Three New Expo 2020 Liveries

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 Receives First A321neo In New Livery

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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Brussels Airlines Announces Fifth Special Livery Aircraft Addition To Fleet

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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TAP Portugal Makes Small But Important Change to TAP Air Portugal

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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Finnair’s Latest Marimekko A350 Livery Bolsters Carrier’s Design-Led Ethos

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 ‘Boost’ Becomes Joon

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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ANA Reveals Design For Largest Flying Animal Livery, Ever

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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End Of The Plain Plane? Has The ‘Eurowhite’ Livery Hit Critical Mass?

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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Hawaiian Airlines Launch Disney Moana Themed Aircraft

Hawaiian Airlines and Disney yesterday unveiled the first of three custom Airbus A330 aircraft being adorned with imagery from the  animated comedy adventure “Moana” coming to the screens in November. The first of the three decal designs features four Disney characters from the movie on Hawaiian’s fuselage as they take off on a ‘way finding journey’, including the demigod Maui,…

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Airlines Get Into The Olympic Spirit

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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LATAM Finally Reveal New Livery And Brand Ethos. But Do We Love It?

Today was the big reveal for LATAM, where new livery, full brand realisation, uniforms, airport signage and counter design were finally revealed to the public as well as a consolidated website (www.latam.com). Everything has been perfectly timed to coincide in May, with liveries, website and even new branded magazine for the combined carriers called Vamos all launching…

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Going Behind The Scenes At Hornall Anderson For Their Alaska Rebrand

Alaska’s rebrand was well received when it was launched at the end of January with aviation fans (including us) around the world taking to the refreshed look. Sometimes though even a small shift in the look of an airline can take many months of painstaking work as historically speaking, liveries have to last decades, not years…

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PNG Air Is The Latest Pacific Airline to Introduce New Livery And Brand

This may not be the most well-known airline internationally, but PNG Air certainly will be turning heads thanks to a new livery and brand developed by Principals Group, a brand strategy and identity company with offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland. Launched this month in Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea (one of the most challenging…

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Gol Score Own-Gool

Brazilian carrier Gol recently announced their new brand image, refreshing a brand image that has lasted for 14 years. Whilst there is perhaps very little that has changed on the surface, the new logo with its repositioned silver ring element somehow now manages to spell ‘GOOL’ instead of Gol. This could be construed as brand…

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