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And The New American Airlines Livery Is…

by on January 17, 2013 · 68 comments

in American

Update 10:30am: I just got off a conference call with Rob Friedman, American’s VP of Marketing to hear more about the new livery. He said the idea began about 2 years ago when American put in its historically large order of new aircraft. It was influenced by the fact that many of those aircraft would be constructed from new materials and composites, requiring different kinds of paint and that the airline wanted the exteriors of the new planes to match their more advanced interiors.

Friedman said that the new eagle design and the stripes are meant to evoke the spirit of modern America’s soaring spirit and its people’s passion for moving forward. They were aware, however, that a lot of loyal customers are attached to the old silver bird look and were careful to take that into account with the redesign and to try to come up with something that would respect the airline’s now-iconic silver bird design.

In terms of rollout, though customers should start seeing changes immediately on American’s website and social channels, actually redoing the entire fleet is estimated to take between 3-5 years, so it might not come to a plane near you anytime soon. However, all the new 777-300′s will feature the new design and begin flying the Dallas-Sao Paolo route in the next few weeks.

The redesign will also find its way into new uniforms for American’s staff and crew, so stay tuned for more developments and revelations on that front next week.

Update 9:35am: Here is a link to the actual livery- very…interesting! I like it- kind of reminds me of those red, white and blue ice pops I had growing up! http://www.aa.com/newamerican?v_locale=en_US&v_mobileUAFlag=AA

Jazzy new AA livery

Jazzy new AA livery

Update 2 9:14am: Seems official- this image was taken off AA’s website at this link: http://www.aa.com/newamerican/img/logo2.png?v_locale=en_US&v_mobileUAFlag=AA

New AA Logo.. thoughts?

New AA Logo.. thoughts?

Update: This logo was apparently found on the AA website earlier this morning… thoughts?

New AA Logo?

New AA Logo?

Brand spankin new AA 777-300 spotted at MIA earlier this week

Brand spankin new AA 777-300 spotted at MIA earlier this week

An all-white tube with no logo… just kidding! However, this picture is indeed their new 777-300 aircraft, which was at Miami International earlier this week (hat tip to TPG reader Aaron for sending the pic) and will be put into service on their Dallas- Sao Paulo rate next month.

They will be unveiling their new livery at this special site at 10am Eastern time this morning and then I have a call with AA reps at 10:15, so comment here if you have any questions you’d like me to ask. I’ll update this post when we have more information.

However, lets take a guess at what the new livery will look like and I’ll give a special prize handpicked from the Johannesburg airport (where I am right now) to the person who guesses the closest to what the actual livery will be. Another prize goes to the funniest guess. If anyone has an inside scoop and can send a pic before the announcement, I’ll get you an even bigger gift!

My Guess: AA announces a US Airways merger and the new livery is American Airways in a silver and blue color combo. That would be quite the way to announce a merger!

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  • Jimgotkp

    I’m thinking it will be primarily blue with stripes of silver and red.

  • KateMPH

    Updated font (modern styling), sleek silver body.

  • JA

    I say it will feature Doug Parker’s head on the tail. So Long to AA as we knew it.

  • @cleverremark

    My guess is the look will be an avi of their former CEO and revolutionary leader Robert Crandall– but no smile, he never smiled.

    My question: while the look will change, will there be a stronger emphasis on customer service since this is an area where I’ve experienced AA falling behind in the past 5 years. Their personnel present the persona– we’ve given up– and you can’t hide that with a new paint job.

  • Cory Graham

    My guess is primarily white/silver with blue and red accents..Get rid of the all silver tin can already!

  • Joe

    Blue tail fin with red stripe, blue and red on the wings, silver fuselage with red and blue stripes.

  • William J Sisti

    I am such a spaz. I didn’t read the email and just thought the new livery was unpainted polished aluminium!

  • http://twitter.com/TallTravels Andrew Fielding

    If your guess turns out to be true I’ll be dumbfounded.

  • thepointsguy

    Haha a new era of cost cutting!

  • thepointsguy

    I highly, highly doubt it… But figured id start the guessing with a wild one!

  • http://twitter.com/browngalaga Neel

    I’m guessing they will modify the Alcoholics Anonymous logo seen here- http://www.trinityoldtappan.com/hp_wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/AA-Logo.jpg
    with the characteristic American Airlines blue and red A letters in the middle. This will be announced as part of a cost savings plan to eliminate alcohol service on all flights. Ironically, American won’t need to modify the words on the outside of the triangle…

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_NZ63DQVKJXSWWWDXZ6BBJBPDMY moe

    My guess

    Silver airplane (AA’s signature) with “AMERICAN” written somewhere between the wing and cockpit, and just the Eagle logo on the tail (and in blue).

  • Hunter

    Guesses? TPG you’ll have a lot of things to read this morning!
    I’m going to say all white plane, with “American” written on it, half red (top) and half blue (bottom).

  • Hunter

    Actually, whatever it is, just don’t let it be all chrome again.

  • Norm

    My guess is that it’ll match the AA icon from the iPhone app.

  • Chris
  • Faisal

    The new logo is horrible.

  • http://twitter.com/Goat__Rodeo Goat Rodeo

    White base – modern logo (has already been leaked – http://www.aa.com/newamerican/img/logo2.png – I think they will thin up the stripe down the plane. New lettering will be more “modern” with perhaps a 1920s deco font.

  • http://twitter.com/DeamandelK Kevin Deamandel

    Spoiler ahead ;)

  • http://twitter.com/DeamandelK Kevin Deamandel

    Livery also leaked on the site…

  • http://twitter.com/Goat__Rodeo Goat Rodeo

    Ya – just saw that too right after I hit send.

  • Rcgjerde

    It doesn’t matter how much lipstick they put on the pig. They have terrible service and I will only fly them when there is no alternative.

  • Matthew Smith
  • http://twitter.com/DeamandelK Kevin Deamandel

    You didn’t happen to pick up that link from twitter did you? ;)

  • Matthew Smith

    No from their CSS Day 1 on their website. Guess I’m a bit behind in that case.

  • Santastico

    I couldn’t agree more

  • http://twitter.com/Goat__Rodeo Goat Rodeo

    gonna give us a chance to earn 1million miles when its released and shared with the world + dog.

    http://www.aa.com/newamerican/img/closingPlane.png

  • http://twitter.com/Goat__Rodeo Goat Rodeo

    you need to actually get the css running so the overlay of their plane will work right… you will be able to rotate it and whatnot… hence the spritemap.

  • Matthew Smith

    Trolling through the CSS, looks like they’ll have a 1M mile contest / promo as well at launch.

  • http://twitter.com/Goat__Rodeo Goat Rodeo

    http://www.aa.com/newamerican/img/closingPlane.png

    Closing image of the plane from CSS1.

  • Hunter

    This is more French than American.

  • Andrew

    I heard American is merging with Ryanair to develop the super cheap airline industry on a global scale. I heard this new airline would be called “Ameri-ryan Air” and would be sure to nickel and dime you from point A to point B.

  • Matthew Smith

    yep. but you can still view all the angles that will go into that dynamic graphic from the link. Which is probably good for Brian to “jump” the announcement he was looking for.

  • http://twitter.com/TallTravels Andrew Fielding

    Reminds me of Austrian. BTW Steve Frsichling has confirmed this so yeah, this is how they’re destroying the pretty nice brand recognition they currently have. I think this is too much of a change.

  • http://twitter.com/Goat__Rodeo Goat Rodeo

    Video page finally started working ….. http://www.aa.com/newamerican/newamerican.html

  • Pc8488

    Ask them if they are going to update their flight attendant uniforms from the late 80′s

  • Santastico

    BARBER POLE AIRLINES!!!!! What a terrible design!!! The tail of the plane looks like a spinning barber pole. And I can assure you they spent million of $$$ to come up with this terrible design.

  • Lkj

    great logo; meh livery

  • marc

    Looks like they tried too hard. Something’s missing. Doesn’t feel right.

    Delta still wins.

    If United would get rid of the gold “accents”, it would do wonders for their livery and branding.

  • Billiken

    Looks like a French Flag.

  • Mjeones

    DISGUSTING!

  • PSA

    Hated It :(

    Agree, it doesn’t feel right. The tail is way to busy……and out of proportion.
    Makes current livery look much better! (not that is wasn’t before this exposure).

  • Adpage

    Good use of time and money for a company that’s in bankruptcy

  • Billiken

    It is a design to solute their French socialist philosophy of expecting government bailouts to support their failed and outdated business model. Expecting taxpayers and customers to bail them out while the executive aristocrats jump ship with their golden parachute.

  • SilentBill

    Awful. Just beyond awful.

    Brian- Do you think it’s worth airline, with iconic livery and brand recognition, to change livery? It there more value long term to leave it the same?

  • http://www.CheersandGears.com Oldsmoboi

    Logo is great, livery not so much. Put that logo on the tail and it would be fine.

  • Charlotte Flyer

    Hideous beyond words. Two years and this is what FutureBrand came up with? Tom Horton really needs to go now.

  • Ernie

    I hope they didn’t pay much (read “anything”) for that… Fail.

  • Ilimas

    I love it! It looks sleek and stylish.

  • jc

    Bad, Bad, Bad – whats with the red white and blue piano keys and greyhound bus logo? They had a huge opportunity to do something great! they missed the boat.

  • Rick Jones

    Horrible logo. The bird looks like someone wearing a pair of 3D glasses or a cheap ripoff of a greyhound bus with wings. The Tail is a copy of Colgan Air or about 5 others. The whole thing sucks. Unoriginal and cheap looking.

  • Nick Knight

    Way to tie in some right wing garbage.

  • Mjones

    the Tommy Hilfiger Airlines aka American

  • Benthelefty

    Like our country as a whole lol…bad examples all around!

  • Benthelefty

    mostly true. Except gov’t is to blame for appropriating the bailouts…I just wanna fly for free!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=719531696 Sam Wolfe

    I think that the logo and livery look wonderful – but (a) I’m not American, and (b) I don’t fly AA. So maybe I’m not as passionate about the old design.

    The new designs are modern and ‘clean’…

  • AA pilot

    Logo is horrendous. It looks like a shark fin leaving a bloody trail of our employee contracts in its wake. Also it’s too far away from the lettering and the angle doesn’t even match. Looks nothing like a bird. It’s just plain stupid.

  • Schmege

    Shellacking a turd still makes it a turd. How much did THAT cost the airline (us)?

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/U4CISAQGWNJVKMPFYKYGJY6WXE M.P.

    Not a big fan of the small logo- to artsy, but I do like the tail of the planes. I think I was swayed by the majestic music during the video.

  • Marcus Sasse

    São Paulo is written with U, not O. It’s Portuguese language, not Italian

  • Pingback: (Video) Exclusive First Look at The New American Airlines Livery | The Points Guy

  • http://twitter.com/EricPinckert Eric Pinckert

    Changing an iconic brand is neither simple, nor easy. Some thoughts:

    http://www.brandculture.com/blog/2013/01/a-new-brand-takes-flight-at-american-airlines/

  • John

    What is the music in the reveal video?

  • Richard

    The merger with CUBANA is imminent! At least now their livery matches their service. I will miss the double As………..

  • tassojunior

    OMG awful.

  • Pingback: Maximize Monday: Maximizing A Potential American Airlines US Airways Merger | The Points Guy

  • Matt

    It’s a little too patriotic for me…as someone who’s proud of America but slightly mortified at the way people wave the flag around at things like NASCAR races and pro-gun rallies, I’d be a little embarrassed to fly on a plane that looks like this.

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