BA Thematic Livery gone ?

[Rescue115]

Hi,

I've noticed that BA have once again switched back to the old red/white/blue livery (I'm not sure when this happened). I believe that the thematic livery upset some people...is this true and if so why ?

Cheers,

res

[Iz]

Yes, they're apparently going to paint all of their planes with the flag on the tail.

I flew for a BA franchise for a while, we had the flag and one of our aircraft the Delftblue Daybreak. Talked to some of the staff and the argument among many was "This is British Airways, not World Airways, innit?" (no relation to the US-based World Airways of course) and they didn't like the world tails. Some were actually offended!

Personally, I really enjoyed the different liveries, it made for nice variation. Now it's back to boring! :)

[Speedbird252]

...ah IZ, Delftblue Daybreak.....an earlyish 757 as I recall? I know what you mean about the paint jobs, I loved them too. I saw a 744 leaving while I was in Windsor at the weekend and it had the "Chatham Dockyard" tail insignia, just made me think of Concorde.

Anyway, chin up.....!!

[Iz]

Delftblue Daybreak is probably the most often used tailscheme, after the flag (Catham Historic Dockyard). There's actually about 4 different Delftblue patterns out there. And because our BA franchise was Dutch, one of our tails had it too :)

[Big Red ' L ']

A quick glance around Gatwick every day reveals loads of 'themed' tails still about. Its rare to see the old red/white/blue tails.
When are they supposed to be doing this repaint thing..?

------------------
Its not the fall that kills you...Its the sudden stop.....

[Lucifer]

No, he means all go to the Concorde Chatham dockyard scheme. All planes at check/new are in this scheme now.

[wtpurser]

Its much better in the new livery, the union jack. People want to fly with British Airways because they are British not a mix of multiculturals.

Union all the way !

[Cyrano]

This is from Air Transport Intelligence (www.rati.com), their copyright:

British Airways to scrap ethnic tailfins
Kieran Daly, London (11May01, 11:29 GMT, 262 words)

British Airways (BA) is finally to abandon the ‘ethnic’ tailfins that became the most public symbol of Bob Ayling’s troubled
reign at the airline.

The fins were introduced in 1997 but after widespread criticism in the UK the airline decided in 1999 to paint half the fleet in
colours with a stylised Union Jack flag on the tail. The design was originally intended for use only on the BAC- Aerospatiale
Concorde fleet.

Rivals Virgin Atlantic Airways and BMI British Midland have since emphasised the flag on their own redesigned liveries,
revelling in BA’s discomfiture at home, and now BA says it too will restore the flag to its entire fleet.

Announcing the new strategy as BA rolled out the 100th aircraft to be painted with the flag-design, senior design manager
Mike Crump said: “Our aim is to bring back consistency and unity to the BA brand through a simpler identity. Research has
shown us that the Union Flag design is liked by our core customers and staff worldwide because they believe it better
reflects the direction the company is now heading and reinforces a core goal of Britishness in a more modern and less
formal way.”

Crump says the aim is to carry out the rebranding at nil-cost if possible, so the aircraft will be repainted as part of their
normal paint-cycle – meaning that the fins will be around for a considerable time to come.

Other uses of the logos on, for example, business cards, boarding passes and luggage tags, will be phased out rather
quicker as part of the rebranding exercise.

Source: Air Transport Intelligence news