British Airways ethnic liveries

British Airways ethnic liveries

In 1997 British Airways adopted a new livery. One part of this was a newly stylised version of the British Airways "Speedbird" logo, but the major change was the introduction of tail-fin art. Also known as the Utopia or world art tailfins, they used art and designs from international artists and other sources to represent countries on BA's route network. Each aircraft carried the name of that country on the rear of the fuselage.

The new corporate logo was created by the London-based design agency Newell and Sorrell, who also oversaw the implementation of the tailfin designs.

The German designs refer to the BA subsidiary Deutsche BA, and the Australian designs to the BA's alliance with Qantas.

Criticism

The adoption of this aircraft livery was seen as a move away from the traditional British image of the carrier. BA suggested that the previous "Landor" scheme carried an air of arrogance and detachment, and insisted that the new tailfins were popular with international travellers. However, they were unpopular with some people in the UK, despite nine of the designs being inspired by either England, Scotland or Wales. Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher showed her displeasure at the designs by covering one of the new tailfins on a model 747 with a handkerchief. She declared, "We fly the British flag, not these awful things."

Virgin Atlantic took advantage of the controversy by applying a Union flag scheme to the front end of its aircraft. In their own 1999 relaunch, the flag was also applied to the vertical winglets of Virgin Atlantic's aircraft.

Review of use

While the majority of the designs were applied to a variety of aircraft models, one scheme (the stylised version of the Chatham Dockyard Union Flag) was used on Concorde only. By 1999, BA had repainted around 170 aircraft in its new colours but then Chief Executive, Bob Ayling, announced a review of this process. The aircraft already repainted would keep the new designs, but the remainder of the fleet (still showing the pre-1997 union flag design) would receive a variant of Concorde's Union Flag design. The announcement was timed to divert some attention from Virgin's relaunch.

Finally in May 2001 the new Chief Executive, Rod Eddington, announced the entire fleet would receive the new Union flag livery. Eddington argued that while an attempt to increase the airline's appeal was not a bad thing, the exercise hurt the image of the carrier among its core customers — those that are attracted by the British identity, which the ethnic tailfins diluted somewhat.

Liveries

Gallery

List

External links

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1320000/video/_1324788_ba13_cellanjones_vi.ram BBC: BA turns tail on colours (Real Video)]
* [http://www.leecollins.co.uk/batails.htm BA tailfin gallery: Lee Collins]
* [http://www.lockonaviation.net/html/utopia.html Lockon Aviation Photography - Gallery]
* BA Rendezvous [http://www.brinkley.cc/PhotoData/GJ/GJ257/gj257_a.jpg] [http://www.brinkley.cc/PhotoData/GJ/GJ015/gj015_a.jpg] [http://www.brinkley.cc/PhotoData/GJ/GJ015HKG/gj015hkg_e.jpg]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую

Look at other dictionaries:

  • British Airways Flight 5390 — A British Airways BAC 111 similar to the aircraft involved in the accident Accident summary Date 10 June 1990 …   Wikipedia

  • British Airways Flight 9 — CGI render of G BDXH without power, passing through the ash clouds of the Mount Galunggung Incident summary Date …   Wikipedia

  • British Airways — For the 1930s airline of similar name, see British Airways Ltd. British Airways …   Wikipedia

  • British Airways Flight 38 — BA38 redirects here. For the region of the human brain, see Brodmann area 38. British Airways Flight 38 G YMMM after the crash at Heathrow Airport. Accident summary …   Wikipedia

  • History of British Airways — London Heathrow Airport has been the main hub of British Airways since formation …   Wikipedia

  • Comair (South Africa) — Comair IATA MN ICAO CAW Callsign COMMERCIAL Founded …   Wikipedia

  • OpenSkies — For the air transport agreement, see Open skies. OpenSkies IATA EC ICAO BOS …   Wikipedia

  • Livery — A livery is a uniform or other sign worn in a non military context on a person or object (such as an airplane or vehicle) to denote a relationship with a person or corporate body, often by using elements of the heraldry relating to that person or …   Wikipedia

  • Rebranding — is the process by which a product or service developed with one brand, company or product line affiliation is marketed or distributed with a different identity. This may involve radical changes to the brand s logo, brand name, image, marketing… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”