American Airlines unveils new livery. Photos!

[SarahZ]

I like the brushed silver with the modern font, but that tail graphic makes me think, "Amurrica..."
Edit: Okay, okay... I know the company is "American", so of course they're going to use red/white/blue, but it's just... it screams at me. That's where the "Amurrica" comes from. There are more subtle ways of incorporating the colors, especially since it has "American" plastered on the side.

It just reminds me of everyone trying to out-patriot-pride each other. I feel like the plane needs truck nuts and an NRA sticker.

tl;dr - they need a different tail graphic.

That's just what I'd expect a socialist Murrica hatin' elitest to say.

Wine juice boxes for all!

 

[tp49]

It just looks cheap. The American titles look kind of Greyhoundish.

 

[The Journalist]

It looks like was designed with the Oneworld unified livery in mind, otherwise why all grey? The tailpant is about as similar to British Airway's tailpaint as possible without actually copying it, though I guess if the design concept is "stylized red white and blue flag" there's only so many things to do with that.

I miss the days of loud and gaudy plane liveries, but I think I'm the only one. Most airlines seem to be going in the direction of "solid color body with the name in block san-serif font and random shapes on the tail." The new United livery in particular is immensely boring; they seem to have taken the bad parts of both parents airlines' liveries and combined them.

 

[Texan Eagle]

BTW did anybody see the "new" American Airlines website? It is an absolute trainwreck right now. See these screenshots-

Umm what's that big blob of grey emptiness next to the improperly resized images? :wacko:

Why has all that text run away to hide in top left corner? :blink:

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I can't tell from those photo's, but I wonder if those letters are like a 'wrap', and cover some of the windows.....if so it would obscure visibility somewhat.....

No. I don't think any airline has ever/would ever do such a thing. There is nothing to be gained from wrapping/covering the windows, and would be an extra expense to apply and maintain.

Airlines wrap their windows all the time. On their cargo aircraft. h34r:

Cargo planes generally don't have windows. Where cargo planes are converted from former passenger aircraft, the windows are usually plugged. Those plugs are often painted over. None of them are "wrapped", though.

In general, when you see a smiley you don't need take my post all that seriously.

BTW did anybody see the "new" American Airlines website? It is an absolute trainwreck right now.

That's pretty damn funny. Something got missed in the migration. Anybody need an IT job with free travel? LOL.

 

[SarahZ]

It looks like the style sheet didn't load for the text along the top. That, or a script needs to be fixed.

I like Frontier Airlines' livery. They have a pretty basic body with their name in HUGE font and an animal on the tail.

 

[PerRock]

I'm not a huge fan of this new livery. It's seems like it's following the new current new design most airlines are going to, so I can't blame them. But personally overall it isn't a design I looks that good. They've got a logo that looks like a airline tail that they didn't put on the tail, that's a no-brainer for a designer like me.

peter

 

[trainman74]

I always liked the old livery and thought it was fairly timeless. I think it's definitely going to take a while to get used to seeing the new livery, given that the old livery predates my birth! I do think it looks better in the actual photo that was posted in this thread than it does on the Photoshopped mockups.

I do hope they keep one aircraft in the old livery as a "retro" tribute.

Guess now there needs to be a update to the documentary "Helvetica."

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Guess now there needs to be a update to the documentary "Helvetica."

I was thinking the same thing. It's different alright, just like everybody else.

 

[Texan Eagle]

It looks like the style sheet didn't load for the text along the top. That, or a script needs to be fixed.

I pointed this out to their Twitter account @AmericanAir yesterday night and they immediately replied that they are going to do website upgrade tonight, and sure enough, today morning the new AA website looks simply beautiful.. compared to websites of United and US Airways stuck in 1990s or early 2000s.

The other pages, such as AAdvantage homepage or their fleet information page have not been updated yet and look like a disaster. Some IT folks need more coffee to stay up on their toes I guess.

 

[rrdude]

Double yuck. That was my honest, first impression. Then I said to myself, outloud, "You've got to be kidding me........."

It's not bad, but what they HAD was better........

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Today morning the new AA website looks simply beautiful.. compared to websites of United and US Airways stuck in 1990s or early 2000s. The other pages, such as AAdvantage homepage or their fleet information page have not been updated yet and look like a disaster. Some IT folks need more coffee to stay up on their toes I guess.

The UA website may look old (although 1990's era is an excessive exaggeration) but it has other factors in its favor. UA uses CO's front end with their own back end and while their hybrid system isn't as all-knowing as first hoped it still allows for far more raw functionality than most other airlines sites I've used. So, even when half of UA's site is broken it's still twice as useful as most airline sites in my experience. As for US, I don't like the look or the functionality of their site and even on a good day it can't do that much for me anyway. Still more useful than AGR's site though.

 

[TimePeace]

I am having a hard time caring one way or the other. I rarely see airplanes except so high up in the sky they are not identifiable.

However my favorite things to see on an airplane on the rare occasions I am planning to fly in are wings, engines, and horizontal and vertical stabilizers, landing gear, and various control surfaces. Oh, and pilots in the cockpit. :mellow:

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Just like humans, I prefer to judge the plane by what's on the inside, not what's on the outside.

Since I will be spending hour(s) inside the plane, I'm more interested in how the inside looks & feels.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Just like humans, I prefer to judge the plane by what's on the inside, not what's on the outside.Since I will be spending hour(s) inside the plane, I'm more interested in how the inside looks & feels.

What do you think of the pending interior changes?

Even though I usually bring my own content I still like the idea of having AVOD at each seat for when my batteries are dead or I've run out of stuff to watch or listen to. I also like the idea of lie-flat business class seats for those times when there's a steep revenue discount or points redemption mismatch.

Do you like the new "metro-style" look of AA.com?

I'm not a huge fan of metro on the desktop, but it looks fine in the browser.

 

[The Journalist]

Having looked at the entire new livery, I'm completely baffled at not using this logo, easily the best part of the new livery:

...on the tail, where it would look good and not completely generic. All the colors are there, and the very heavily stylized eagle would look good on a tail, where there's always been an eagle on American's planes. Seriously, look at that shape and tell me it doesn't scream "put me on an airplane tail." But instead, it's...at the front of the plane, and the tail is random stripes. Oh well.

 

[Ryan]

Agreed - really like this little bit, too bad the rest of it is crap.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="Devil's Advocate" data-cid="418086" data-time="1358545783"><p>

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="AmtrakBlue" data-cid="418074"><p>Just like humans, I prefer to judge the plane by what's on the inside, not what's on the outside.<br />

Since I will be spending hour(s) inside the plane, I'm more interested in how the inside looks & feels.</p></blockquote>

What do you think of the pending interior changes?<br />

<br />

Even though I usually bring my own content I still like the idea of having AVOD at each seat for when my batteries are dead or I've run out of stuff to watch or listen to. I also like the idea of lie-flat business class seats for those times when there's a steep revenue discount or points redemption mismatch.<br />

<br />

Do you like the new "metro-style" look of AA.com?<br />

<br />

I'm not a huge fan of metro on the desktop, but it looks fine in the browser.</p></blockquote>

Didn't see the interior. I'm an infrequent flier so I really don't have any preferences and can't really do much comparisons.

I did like having a flight tracker on the headrest TV on a flight I took in 2011 and was disappointed that the same airline/flight did not have those headrest TVs on my flight this past August.

 

[saxman]

I think it'll grow on me. I wish they had incorporated the 'AA' somewhere on the tail still because of the iconic nature. For the past few weeks the new 777-300's at the east hangar at DFW in gray paint.

 

[railiner]

So now, they will start repainting the fleet to match, including subsidiary regional American Eagle.

And they are in the early stages of merger talks with US Airways.

If the merger does happen, then will they have to do another modified paint scheme, or more likely let US Airways identity evaporate?

And they are also trying to divest American Eage (don't know who would ever buy them). If that sale goes thru, then Eagle, or whatever its new soon-to-be announced new name will be, will also have to redo its paint scheme.

It all seems such a waste for a carrier coming out of Chapter 11........

 

[SarahZ]

Ugggghhhh. Now that the tail is even more visible (on the website), I hate it even more.

See the red, white, and blue in the logo? Right next to "Plan Travel"? That would have looked nice on the tail. I think it's the stripes that are irritating me. Plus, they look super-shiny, almost like tinsel. That might be why I'm irritated. It looks like a cheap Fourth of July decoration.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Having looked at the entire new livery, I'm completely baffled at not using this logo, easily the best part of the new livery:

...on the tail, where it would look good and not completely generic. All the colors are there, and the very heavily stylized eagle would look good on a tail, where there's always been an eagle on American's planes. Seriously, look at that shape and tell me it doesn't scream "put me on an airplane tail." But instead, it's...at the front of the plane, and the tail is random stripes. Oh well.

Ditto!

 

[Devil's Advocate]

The more I look at this the more I think it's part of a rather simple plan to woo US into marrying AA.

 

[railiner]

The more I look at this the more I think it's part of a rather simple plan to woo US into marrying AA.

As they say...."All the good ones are already taken"......United got Continental, and Delta got Northwest. US Air is the only major left that is looking for a 'suitor'. And they still haven't reconciled their previous merger with America West....

I don't think US Air has much to offer to the merger, other than some valuable 'slots' in places like LGA and DCA......If there is a merger, after a few years, there will be little traces of US Air. Just look for what's left of TWA, Reno Air, Air California, Business Express, Trans-Caribbean, or many others AMR swallowed up over the years including many former routes of Eastern, PanAm, and Braniff.

 

[cirdan]

As a graphic designer, I like the new logo.I really like the new tail graphics!

I like the tail graphics too, but I find the naked all silver tube makes it look more like a WW2 bomber than anything modern.