The Livery aka The Paint Job
Doug Parker, CEO of American Airlines, has instituted a rather quick vote by the employees of the newly combined airline to decide the fate of the new American Airlines livery. All employees of the new company (AA and US Airways) get to vote on whether to keep it as it is or to go back to the previous logo on the tail.
There will be no entirely new paint job. The fuselage and new airline logo being used on the fuselage with billboard titles will remain the same. The only change up for vote is to retain the new tail or to revert to the old tail.
Reverting to the old tail and in combination with the new fuselage actually has some very real appeal for me and that is coming from someone who never liked the old logo that much either. But I agree with many who are already saying that the new logo will win. I think it will too. I don’t think it will last very long but I think it will be retained.
But let’s see what happens and you can’t fault Parker for not addressing things head-on. He wants a consensus and this is a good place to start with his team.
The best news, in my opinion, is that there will be some legacy liveries done to celebrate the airlines that make up this new American Airlines. That’s a lot of airlines and it appears that it will include homage to TWA, an airline that I think got lost as a legacy when purchased by American Airlines.
I don’t know much about Doug Parker, but I like what I’ve seen. I worked in the airline business back in the day of the “larger than life” airline CEO, Crandall, Kelleher, Allen, Lorenzo, Borman. I remember Ron Allen’s visits to Tech Ops, not just to shake hands but really listen to what people were saying. Not that a big personality is necessary. Customer service and financial performance will always be the CEO’s #1 focus, but it’s time for the airlines to get their swagger back after years of being beat down. Get out there and meet the peeps. Show them the pride in being an airline employee. I loved my years in the business and would love to be back there today.
Well, looks like the new tail won but not by much, 52 to 48.