Launch and reception The adoption of this
aircraft livery was seen as a move away from the traditional British image of the carrier. BA claimed that the previous
Landor Associates scheme carried an air of arrogance and detachment, and insisted that the new tailfins were popular with international travelers. In addition to the new tail art, the crest and motto "To Fly. To Serve." were dropped from the livery to make the airline appear more "global and caring." The total cost of the rebranding was estimated at million,
Quentin Newark later called the initiative "incredibly brave" and praised the work of Newell and Sorrell as "expressive [and] gleeful". covered the tailfin of a model 747 painted with
Animals and Trees like this one. However, they were unpopular with many traditionalists in the UK, despite nine of the designs being inspired by either
England,
Scotland or
Wales. Flight crews derided the new designs as "Air Zulu." Former
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher showed her displeasure at the designs by covering one of the new tailfins (
Animals and Trees) on a model
747 with tissue paper. She declared, "We fly the British flag, not these awful things" in 1997. Thatcher also indicated with these fins the airline would lose its identity. In their own 1999 relaunch, the flag was also applied to the vertical
winglets of Virgin Atlantic's aircraft.
Review of use While the majority of the designs were applied to a variety of aircraft models, one scheme (the stylised version of the
Chatham Dockyard Union Flag) was used on
Concorde only. By 1999, BA had repainted around half its fleet (170 aircraft) in its new colours but then Chief Executive, Robert Ayling, announced a review of this process. The
aircraft already repainted would keep the new designs, but the remainder of the fleet (still showing the Landor design) would receive a variant of Concorde's
Union Flag design. The announcement was timed to divert some attention from Virgin's relaunch. Chris Holt, the head of design management at BA who led the Utopia Project, resigned in October 1999. A single 747-400 leased from British Airways to
Qantas in 2000, registered as VH-NLH whilst operating in Australia (formerly G-BNLH), wore a hybrid livery complete with the Denmark
Wings tail design. Under service with Qantas, the British Airways titles were removed and replaced with Qantas' own, but the remainder of the livery was left unchanged. In May 2001 the new Chief Executive,
Rod Eddington, announced the entire fleet would receive the new Union flag livery. The ethnic images would also be removed from baggage tags, menus, signage boarding passes and all company materials. Eddington argued that while an attempt to increase the airline's appeal was not a bad thing, the exercise had hurt the image of the carrier among its core customers – those that are attracted by the British identity. Eddington's opinions were echoed by Adam Hill, founder and partner of the advertising agency Designate, who stated that "name and logo are just small parts of the puzzle: to customers, the pride and heritage of this very British brand is what appeals, and swapping that out in order to appear modern and multicultural resulted in the very essence of the brand being diluted." The final aircraft with a "Utopia" tail (
Whale Rider) was retired in 2006, an
Airbus A320-200 registered G-MEDA. Two
Bombardier Dash 8 aircraft continued to operate with "Utopia" tails (G-BRYU,
Benyhone Tartan; G-BRYV,
Colum) for regional service until 2006, when both aircraft entered service for other airlines. ==World tail liveries==