Retro painted aircraft
Paxing All Over The World
Thanks Stanwell. It's the first time I've used the new picture attachment and the size limitations got me but if you click on the thumbnail, it opens OK.
I had just arrived at BNE from CNS and was walking to a connection when I saw it and took a quick snap.
I had just arrived at BNE from CNS and was walking to a connection when I saw it and took a quick snap.
Thread Starter
Would it be possible to gently nudge the subject towards *why* an airline would choose to paint an aircraft in retro livery from a business perspective, rather than talking about what livery one particularly likes visually ?
Paxing All Over The World
I think Shamrock answered that in post #13. Publicity, nothing else. Amending old schemes to new shaped aircraft and making a one off is money. Nothing short of a big anniversary or the Olympics will prise the money out of the Board. Then the PR dept have to work very hard to prove that it did justify the cost.
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: u.k.
Age: 56
Posts: 238
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
https://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgu...act=mrc&uact=8
In fact some are arguably still present today, for example if you board a BA flight numbered below BA300, you're flying what would have been a BOAC route, and if your flight number is odd then you're outbound from LHR. Conversely, you're on a route in BEA's empire if it's BA300 and upwards, and outbounds are even numbered.
Actually that's not quite the case; BA flights were renumbered into this series some time in the early 1980s. BOAC and initial BA longhaul flights had quite high flight numbers - transatlantics were numbered in the BA500 and upwards, while Australia was BA900 and up. I'm not sure if there was an effort to avoid duplication between BEA and BOAC.
I should add, of course that the BA300+ demarcation only applies to Heathrow routes and not to Gatwick services, nor obviously to marketing flight numbers on codeshare flights.
Paxing All Over The World
WHBM, I take your point but I was referring to the grand merger that was made in 1974. Given that BA has a considerable preponderance of lh routes, it would be very confusing for the pax. As we saw with the multi-coloured 'ethnic livery' tails. I was one of the few who thought it brilliant.
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: Quiet spot
Age: 74
Posts: 54
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Every now and again, a major airline will decide to paint one of its aircraft in a livery dating back maybe 50 years.
Clearly aircraft need to be repainted on a regular basis to keep up a polished image and avoid passengers linking peeling/fading paint with poor quality aircraft maintenance.
Yes the spotter side of me likes seeing the odd retro livery but there is presumably a higher cost for the paint shop to use a retro livery rather than the standard livery and there is a risk some passengers will think that a 50 year old aircraft is still being used. Most passengers don't spend much time spotting or looking at aircraft photos.
So why do airlines choose to paint aircraft in retro livery ? Some senior manager presumably has to authorise the cost and non-standard image. "Because it looks pretty" probably isn't a sufficiently good reason for the deviation from normal corporate process.
Clearly aircraft need to be repainted on a regular basis to keep up a polished image and avoid passengers linking peeling/fading paint with poor quality aircraft maintenance.
Yes the spotter side of me likes seeing the odd retro livery but there is presumably a higher cost for the paint shop to use a retro livery rather than the standard livery and there is a risk some passengers will think that a 50 year old aircraft is still being used. Most passengers don't spend much time spotting or looking at aircraft photos.
So why do airlines choose to paint aircraft in retro livery ? Some senior manager presumably has to authorise the cost and non-standard image. "Because it looks pretty" probably isn't a sufficiently good reason for the deviation from normal corporate process.
GBrf the rail freight company has finished its final Class 66 loco delivery in the Brunswick Green livery of steam loco Standard Class 9F 'Evening Star' a type that hauled heavy freight and was the final steam loco built in Britain.
The 9F now resides in the NRM York where it may be joined in forty years by the American built diesel loco, which according to press reports has already been gifted for future preservation.
I guess it will outlive most of today's airliners too.
Paxing All Over The World
I saw reference to a new one-off paint scheme that KLM has done for Kings Day. This followed some PR research and you can search for their 777-306ER PH-BVA and it's orange makeover, rolled out a few days ago. I think it looks very good but you get an idea of the cost when the article said:
Not to mention having the machine off the line for four days! Leave alone the design and planning cost.
Of course, nowadays there is the whole YouTube timelapse promotion and so on to gain extra value but the PR people have to be sure of their ground. (pun intended)
It took a team of 35 people four days to spray on the orange livery, with 335 litres of paint used.
Of course, nowadays there is the whole YouTube timelapse promotion and so on to gain extra value but the PR people have to be sure of their ground. (pun intended
)
