Originally Posted by
jethro15
Simple is best, otherwise you go to the extreme of ornate liveries. Some more effectual than others, but the costs of applying such liveries must be astronomical. Remember the flack that BA took when they revealed their ‘World’ liveries.
What is a livery for? It serves no purpose in the air, However, on the ground, it identifies to the general public/passenger a presence. It may not look pretty to the aficionados, or the aviation photographers, but it gets them noticed by potential customers.
I totally get what you're saying, jethro. Most folks aren't as obsessed by what a plane looks like as many of us on this forum are! Having said that, one livery could very easily be mistaken for another these days (Lufthansa, LOT & TAROM, and Swiss & Austrian spring to mind) and I'd have thought the marketing folks would want to do something a bit different to catch the eye.
(I appreciate that Swiss and Austrian are essentially owned by the same people, and that might be a reason for the identikit liveries.)