It is a fairly open secret that American Airlines has some re-branding effort going on for the airline.  The current expectation is that we’ll learn what this is when AA unveils its new 777-300ER later this month (according to current plan).  I noticed that AA’s 777-300ER was sitting, untouched, on the ramp of the former Delta, now American hanger located on the east side of DFW airport.  Sorry but the aircraft looked just as it did in other photos.  It’s grey with a whiter tail section that extends downward through the rear fuselate/tailcone area.

Re-branding an airline doesn’t happen very often (except in United Airlines’ case) and particularly not often in AA’s situation.  There are fans who don’t want to see AA change their branding and logo but I think most agree that AA is fairly long overdue at this point.

And they have a functional reason for doing this as well.  Airbus aircraft can’t kept polished easily.  The metal used on their fuselages pretty much requires paint.  In addition, other aircraft that AA is set to receive such as the 787 have fuselages that aren’t even metal.  So it’s time for a new look.

In another life, I did a fair bit of marketing and branding work although for very small companies. Like everyone else, I’ve always tried to consider the message that was being sent with a new look.  In the airline world, a re-branding often takes on more and more “white” on the fuselage with billboard titles becoming more common as well.  Most want to signal a global presence or a brand identity that has not downsides in other countries.  As a result, the look ends up being a bit generic these days.

I’ve thought about what AA might want to signal with its re-branding vs what it likely is going to signal.  I think whatever is unveiled with be extremely modern with strong design cues that harken to the history of the airline.  I think we’ll see a silver or grey fuselage with bigger, bolder titles in a single color and some dashes of red and blue thrown in.  It will be modern in its typeface and almost certainly global in its look.

But I would be very, very tempted to go a very different route with those aircraft.  I would want to signal an element of “cool” and harken back to the days when an airline was truly full service even in coach.  I would want people to seek me out because I was both trendy and retro at the same time.  I would use some variation of these aircraft:

1950’s/1960’s Red Tail Logo on a modern 757

1960’s Astrojet Logo on a modern 737

I would paint the aircraft a metallic silver and use the 757 scheme (the first image) and I think people would go wild for it.  It would signal all the romance and service of the airline world of the 1960’s and 1970’s and there would be no doubt as to who the airline was when it landed at either a domestic or foreign airport.

Or imagine the lightning bolt cheatline on a silver metallic paint job but place modern billboard American Airlines titles across the top of the fuselage.   Use the 1950/1960 red tail scheme as it appears on the above 757 as well as the later 1960 logo that is used on the above 737 Astrojet and even today’s logo as well.

It will never happen.  It’s far too risky and bold for today’s corporate airline world.  But I think it would be a great move and I think it would have a great effect on the traveling public.

Filed under: Airline Fleets by ajax