Virgin Atlantic Wants You to Notice Them from Ground or Sky

July 30, 2010 at 10:46 AM | by juliana | Comments (2)

It's often hard for travelers to take notice of the outside of an airplane (formally called the livery) because usually you're funneled from the boarding gate area into the plane via a windowless ramp. And to be honest, unless it's wrapped with a scantily clad Bar Reaeli, travelers aren't going to care what the outside of the plane looks like.

But ever looks-conscious Virgin Atlantic has given their livery a new design (the last one was created in '05) and you better like it because it is going on all the airline's 38 planes, signage, communications efforts and advertisements. Here's what's changed:

· The Virgin Atlantic name appears across the aircraft in a newer and bigger custom drawn font.
· The undercarriage of the aircraft (a 747-400 aircraft G-VROC is shown here) features the new logo in dark purple, making it more easily identifiable during takeover and landing (for all you plane-spotters out there.)
· From inside the plane, passengers (grannies and ambien-takers) can remember which airline they're flying by looking out to see the plane's winglets which are now red with the Virgin script on the inner side.
· The flag carrying lady under the nose got some plastic surgery and now waves a bigger Union Jack flag.
· [For the extreme airline nerds] The plane has a new paint system unique to Virgin, a first for a commercial aircraft that is so durable the aircraft only needs to be repainted once a decade.

Just for your reference, here's what the old Virgin Atlantic livery looked like. And here's a shot of the new:

More changes are in store for Virgin Atlantic on the inside too. We've told you about the killer Panasonic Avionics eX2 inflight entertainment system which will allow you to use WiFi onboard. This service will be available on the airline's 10 new A330 planes which will be in place in February 2011. These planes will also feature some new looks for their Economy, Premium Economy and Upper Class cabins. So Virgin Atlantic can be both pretty on the inside and the outside. Isn't that special?

Tell us--did you think Virgin Atlantic was pretty as it was or do you not even care what the outside of the plane looks like? (So long as it's not falling apart of course.) And has anyone seen this new livery already in effect? Let us know in comments below.

[Photo: Airline Business Blog]

Comments (2)

Return to » Virgin Atlantic Wants You to Notice Them from Ground or Sky

Livery is important. It is how you can recognize one airline from another. I wasn't the biggest fan of their OLD livery (when VA was white), and I really liked it when they redesigned it to their current livery. This new livery is a POS. The name is too big. Seriously...when does writing your name as big as you can make for a good livery? Keep it as it is!

It is big and it's not only emblazoned across the entire plane but on the bottom as well but it's pretty. almost feminine, perhaps?

Jaunted

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