United Will Introduce New Livery Next Month

When United Airlines and Continental merged, the United name may have survived, but the Continental livery did. Now comes the chance for true reconciliation.

I say that facetiously, of course, since the paint on aircraft is like the old adage about not judging a book by its cover or that looks can be deceiving. I never much liked the Continental Airlines “bingo basket” globe logo that seemed more fit with a double-breasted blazer banker’s cut blazer than a new global entry for the 21st century. But it grew on me over the last several years. I still miss the United tulip, but it’s fine. I’ve adjusted.

But now United will introduce a new livery in April. Per Flight Global, United CEO Oscar Munoz is calling the new livery an “evolution” rather than “revolution” adding, “I think it’s pretty cool.” We’ll see if we have different definitions of cool. I do hope United leaves the sans serif font alone. The globe is welcome to go.

More realistically, however, the update “will incorporate some of the colors United has recently added to its branding palette that, for example, include the purple used for its new premium economy product and a new shade of blue dubbed ‘Rhapsody Blue’. One color that is likely to feature less prominently is gold, which is currently used as a cheatline between the white upper fuselage and grey belly, and in the globe on the tail.”

Here is United’s latest color palette:

You can see that gold is gone.

We may find more clues in the “Her Art Here” contest which gives women the chance to design a United 757 fuselage. Although a smaller project, design elements from the winners of this contest may find their work incorporated into the new fleetwide livery.

My guess is a new purple stripe, a globe without gold, but just a minor change overall.

No aircraft will be taken out of service to change the livery. New deliveries, as they come, will have the new liveries and other aircraft will be updated when they undergo routine maintenance.

> Read More: United Airlines’ 2019 Fleet Plan

CONCLUSION

I’m not opposed to a new livery but, I do think United has far greater priorities, such as the state of onboard Polaris business class dining. I’ll address that in a subsequent post. But if anyone cares for my design input, I’ve come up with a little schematic below: