Elements Airline liveries involve set individual elements. The airline's name is usually set in a specific style. This is closely defined by typographical designers as a logotype. The specification covers:
typeface (either a commercially available typeface, or else a specially designed and copyrighted custom typeface); type size; type case (capitals or "uppercase," upper and lowercase, lowercase only); cut (Romans or upright letters, italics or slanted letters, regular/condensed/expanded type); weight (bold, medium, light); proportion (defined as units of tight or loose setting, plus amount and degree of type
kerning). Size varies according to fleet member; the larger the aircraft, the larger the titling. Since type is designed to be customarily read from a flat surface, airline livery type is often modified to fit curved aircraft surfaces. The specifications result in a
logotype: a cliche of type whose characteristics remain unchanged. The airline's monogram or emblem is defined in terms of geometry by graphic designers. The resulting specification is called a
logo. Logos are also modified to fit curved surfaces and appear identical from diverse viewing angles. The colour or colours are specified in terms of colour matching and standardisation systems like
Pantone or
Federal Standard 595. The resulting specification is called a colourway. Individual aircraft types most often have individually designed liveries which appear to be identical, but are not quite the same as those applied to other aircraft types operated by the same airline. Uniform liveries became generally adopted by the 1950s and '60s. Before then, individual airlines, notably
Aeroflot and some US carriers like
Delta Air Lines, used custom liveries designed for each individual aircraft type they operated. Aeroflot abandoned the practice as late as 1974, adopting a uniform livery across its fleet.
Standard liveries Bare metal Douglas DC-3 in a bare metal (2015) Until after the Second World War, the "default solution" for aircraft livery design was to leave the aircraft exterior unpainted and decorated only with the airline's title, plus possibly an emblem or monogram. When the world's first all-metal airliners, such as the
Boeing 247,
Douglas DC-2, and
Douglas DC-3, entered service in the 1930s, the sleekness of their shiny exteriors provided an imaginative canvas for livery design. At the time, paint was expensive, fairly heavy, had relatively poor adherence to metal, and was prone to early bleaching, mechanical, and chemical damage; leaving the aircraft skin largely unpainted was logical and economical. was a major operator adopting the bare metal scheme as standard livery for its whole fleet (1968–2013) before replacing it by a conventionally-painted color. As
corrosion and paint research advanced and airliner lives lengthened,
airframers began applying advanced primers and treatments to airliners during manufacture. Many airframers insisted on overall corrosion protection remaining in place throughout an airliner's service life, or at least throughout its diverse guarantee periods. This made bare metal liveries problematic; they began giving way to painted exteriors by the mid-1960s. To ensure longevity, bare metal liveries involved intensive polishing and waxing during manufacture and in service. Nevertheless, the bare metal era survived into the 21st century, although
composite-material airliners like the
Boeing 787 Dreamliner and all
Airbus jets cannot achieve the bare metal look without paint due to their material, which does not have
metallic luster. The most notable proponent of the bare metal look,
American Airlines, adopted a painted livery in 2013. Other passenger airlines, including
Aeroflot,
Aeromexico,
Air Canada,
CP Air,
Cathay Pacific,
Condor Flugdienst,
JAT Yugoslav Airlines,
Lufthansa,
Northwest Airlines,
SAS Scandinavian Airlines System,
TAROM,
US Airways, and
Western Airlines also employed unadorned bare metal in whole or part of their liveries for set periods or as an experiment. Cargo carriers like
Cargolux,
Flying Tiger Line,
JAL Japan Airlines Cargo,
Korean Air Cargo, and
Seaboard World Airlines often claimed that their bare metal liveries save weight. Counterclaims stated that extra maintenance costs cancel this benefit.
Cheatline {{multiple images Among the earliest recognisable elements of aircraft liveries was the cheatline. A cheatline is a decorative horizontal stripe applied to the sides of an aircraft
fuselage. The
etymology of the term stems from "cheating the eye" because the first cheatlines aimed to streamline aircraft visually by reducing the staccato impact of their cabin windows. US carriers like the predecessors of
United Air Lines and TWA (then
Transcontinental and Western Airlines) adopted cheatlines as early as the 1920s. Cheatlines may be in single ("rules") or multiple ("tramlines") bands, and in one or more colours. Cheatlines migrated from the window line to below or occasionally above it. They also melded other decorative elements like stylised
lightning bolts,
feathers,
moustaches,
national flags and colours, and elements of the airline's title and emblem. Cheatlines declined in popularity from the 1970s onward. Today, they often appear in liveries designed to evoke a
retro aesthetic or convey a sense of tradition (heritage/retro liveries). However, some major airlines continue to employ cheatlines in their standard liveries, such as
Air China and
Singapore Airlines, where they serve as enduring elements of corporate branding rather than retro stylisation. In 2023,
Saudia introduced its current brand identity, which included reverting to a cheatline scheme similar to those worn by its aircraft between the 1970s and early 2000s. One noticeable difference, however, is that the cheatline itself was moved to beneath the windows, instead of being applied across them. {{multiple images
Hockey stick In aircraft livery design, a "
hockey stick" means a continuation of the cheatline which is rotated through an angle so as to sweep upwards over the tail fin. Among the first hockey stick liveries were the
Eastern Airlines' 1964 jet livery and
Alitalia's 1970 livery. Hockey stick aircraft liveries remained in fashion until the late 1970s/early '80s with
Cathay Pacific still having them as late as 1994.
All-over color DC-8 in all-over blue (1980) In 1965,
Braniff International Airways hired
Alexander Girard to revamp their corporate identity. The eventual design involved painting the entire aircraft fuselage in one of several single bold colourways. The airline title was logotyped as "Braniff International" in custom designed italic capitals, with the initials pasted across airliner tail fins. The livery was part of a comprehensive corporate identity revamp also involving dedicated airport lounges and including a short-lived "space helmet" headgear for cabin staff. In 1969,
Court Line Aviation hired Peter Murdoch to revamp its corporate identity. The resulting design included decorating each fleet member in one of five different colourways within a hockeystick scheme. The airline name was logotyped as "court" in custom designed lowercase italics, and could easily be changed to 'liat' when individual aircraft transferred to Court Line's Caribbean subsidiary
LIAT Leeward Islands Air Transport. Another all-over colour livery was adopted by airline group British Air Services in late 1970. Group members
Northeast Airlines and
Cambrian Airlines had their aircraft painted white/grey/yellow and white/grey/orange. Related pink and green liveries were designed for group members Scottish and Channel Islands Airways, but never saw service use.
Eurowhite DC-8 in Eurowhite, 1983. From the 1970s, the overall colour idea began to spread worldwide, largely in the form of "Eurowhite" liveries in which white was the dominant colour. A side benefit of the overall white look was that it helped airline
asset management. It did so by facilitating the hiring-out (
chartering in 1960s parlance or
leasing from the 1970s) of individual fleet members during seasonal traffic troughs or economic downturns. Overall white aircraft could readily accept major elements of
lessee liveries, and could equally rapidly revert to
lessor liveries on return. Notable early Eurowhite liveries included UTA
Union de Transports Aériens's early 1970s livery and
Air France's 1976 livery.
Pan Am's 1983 “Billboard” livery was among the first Eurowhite schemes outside Europe. Except for a very brief Air France
Pepsi logojet example, all Concorde liveries were predominantly Eurowhite-based, as this reduced heat absorption.
Jelly bean {{multiple images The Braniff 1967 livery (see All-Over Color above) was also often dubbed "Jellybean." Jellybean liveries involve multiple alternative colourways in which entire aircraft or parts of them are decorated. A Jellybean variant involved decorating tail fins in different designs, as exemplified by
Air India Express, displaying different Indian culture and heritage on its tail,
Alaska Airline's 1972 brand refresh livery,
Frontier Airlines with the images of different animals and birds on its tail,
JetBlue Airways,
Mexicana,
Pakistan International Airlines' "ethnic tails," and
PLUNA.
British Airways’ 1997
ethnic liveries were celebrated Jellybean examples.
Billboard {{multiple images The 1970s saw the emergence of Billboard liveries. This places the airline title centrestage in the livery, often at the expense of the cheatline. Early adopters of Billboard liveries included UTA
Union de Transports Aériens (UTA),
Seaboard World Airlines,
Hughes Airwest, and
LOT Polish Airlines.
Western's and
Pan Am's final liveries were celebrated Billboard examples. In the 1990s and 2000s, two of the three main
airline alliances adopted Billboard liveries for application to selected aircraft operated by alliance member airlines. Low-cost carriers such as
Ryanair and
Spirit Airlines have also employed the use of Billboard liveries on their aircraft.
Specialized liveries Commemorative liveries {{multiple images Commemorative liveries are used to celebrate a milestone in an airline’s history, including anniversaries. One such example would be
ATA Airlines "25th-anniversary" paint scheme, celebrating the airline's inception under
George Mikelson, the founder of
American Trans Air, or
SkyWest Airlines paint scheme used to commemorate the 30th anniversary of that airline. South African Airways had one of their Boeing 747-300s specially painted in rainbow colors to transport the
South African Olympic team to the
2000 Summer Olympics in
Sydney,
Australia. The aircraft was dubbed the
Ndizani.
Heritage or retro liveries A heritage livery is a restoration of a past livery for publicity purposes or to stress the length of an airline's experience or tradition. Airlines, the media, and enthusiasts call aircraft painted in heritage liveries "Retrojets."
Logo Airlines often apply and paint specialized liveries to their standard
airline liveries and logos of their aircraft. • a logo when used for charter service; sports teams and touring rock bands are common examples • a logo of a prominent charity, when the airline and charity have a partnership • images of a city, usually a hub or other city of importance to the airline • advertising for a company (
logojet)
Southwest Airlines is famous for its various liveries promoting
Sea World (painted to resemble an
Orca), various US states where Southwest has operations (painted to resemble the states' flags), and other entities such as the
NBA and the
Ronald McDonald House.
Boeing painted a pre-delivery 747-8 to commemorate the Seattle Seahawks' 2014 National Football Conference Championship and appearance in Super Bowl XLVIII. The livery features the Seahawks logo and a "12" on the tail in reference to the team's fans, who are known collectively as "the 12th man." An update in 2015, with "In it to win it!" added to the aft fuselage, appeared in a flyover of Lake Washington during the Boeing Seafair Air Show in August of that year.
Marketing Spirit of
Disneyland livery (2018)
Alaska Airlines has painted several aircraft in its fleet with promotional liveries for other companies such as its
Disneyland,
Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, and
"Go Cougs" liveries.
All Nippon Airways has featured a number of aircraft in a promotional Pokémon livery, known as the
Pokémon Jet.
EVA Air partnered with
Sanrio to create a number of
"Hello Kitty Jets." Low-cost carriers like
VietJet Air have designed its standard liveries so every aircraft are available to be instantly featured with promotional liveries.
Other air marketing liveries Alliance brands Airbus A320 of
Air France (2011). Three multinational worldwide
airline alliances have grown and developed their own aircraft liveries and
corporate identities which encompass and transcend
major carriers,
mainline carriers,
legacy carriers, and
flag airlines' individual airline identities along with any ties to regional,
geopolitical, national boundaries, and government heritages.
Oneworld,
SkyTeam, and
Star Alliance are the mutually agreed upon "airline alliance liveries" of large numbers of independent and separately owned airlines working together as one through a system of
codeshare agreements, rather than the colors of any one certificated airline. Unlike the other airline alliance
consortium members, Oneworld will retain the "jellytail" airline logo markings of their individual airline alliance partner members upon each member airline's
vertical stabilizer.
Regional brands of
SkyWest operated for
Delta Connection (2011) Similar in terms of how multiple different airlines fly aircraft in full branding of standard
Oneworld,
SkyTeam, and
Star Alliance liveries, in the United States along with many other parts of the world, large airlines often operate in association with other airlines which operate much smaller
regional airliners so smaller communities are linked to an airlines large
airline hub. To offer air travelers what appears as a seamless association with an airline that is much larger, more prominent, well known, or publicly perceived as more safe,
major North American airlines have developed a system of affiliate air carriers. These feeder airlines operate
regional jets and other types of smaller
utility air-taxi type aircraft, typically painted in ways that
mimic (whether through distinctive fonts, colour combinations, or cheatline arrangements) the respective liveries of the operators with which they are affiliated. They may carry sub-branding such as
Airlink,
Connection,
Eagle, or
Express juxtaposed with the more widely recognised carrier name. A recent trend in North America is for regional airlines
d/b/a Express,
Eagle, or
Connection, to operate the aircraft in full mainline airline markings, leaving the operating
regional airlines name in only very small letters, close to the forward entry door. Such brandings noted to cause confusion among travelers, as in the case of the
Colgan Air Continental Connection Flight 3407 crash in which people identified the flight with
Continental Airlines, although it was actually flown by Colgan Air. ==Non airline liveries==