American Airlines is done painting planes — updating the old bare metal legacy American Airlines livery, and repainting US Airways planes to say American. MD80s, slated for retirement, haven’t been painted.
With American’s order for new Boeing 787s with composite skin instead of aluminum, they decided the ‘bare metal’ American Airlines look couldn’t survive. They didn’t want a paint job for those planes that differed from the rest of the fleet, so they adopted new livery and embarked upon a repainting program for aircraft. This began five years ago.
The livery was hugely controversial, many customers, critics and employees didn’t like it. With the merger they’d be repainting even more planes, adding 299 legacy US Airways aircraft to the project.
At the time it was an open question whether they’d keep the new livery that American rolled out before the merger. Airline CEO Doug Parker said liveries don’t matter and he didn’t care what they chose, so he put the decision to an employee vote.
About 200 legacy American planes had been painted in the new livery when the merger closed. And they wanted to save on cost. So employees only got to vote on the tail.
A majority of employees (52%) chose to keep the new American tail, of course there were more American than legacy US Airways employees so it may have been a matter of ‘ours’ versus theirs. They lost control in the merger, they could at least keep their new livery (even though many existing employees hated it).
American had 8 paint lines going at one point, and the final US Airways mainline aircraft was re-painted on November 22, 2016. More than 300 new planes were delivered in the new livery since it was introduced. And the rest of the non-MD80 legacy American fleet was repainted as well.
Painting was a priority for the airline. Implementing a new devalued award chart, reducing mileage earning for flights, and combining mileage programs and reservations systems was a priority. Adding seats onto planes (‘densifying’) was a priority. Things that have not been a priority:
- Adding Main Cabin Extra seating to legacy US Airways aircraft
- Adding seat power to legacy US Airways aircraft (US Airways planes will have seat power eight years into the merger)
Gary if you are so unhappy with AA fly an OAL in 2018.
You rip on the company but keep coming back for the overly generous industry leading AAdvantage program.
didn’t like the new painting at the beginning but is getting less an eye sore now
Don’t bother repainting those old legacy aircraft! Send them to the desert and put the savings towards new fleet replacements.
Don’t go to the bother of repainting those old legacy claptraps. Just send them to the desert and put the savings towards some new additions to the fleet. God knows AA need them!
@Josh G
To be fair he keeps coming back to AA because they have an outsized presence in his home base of Austin. This isn’t unlike my kvetching about UA, who I used to fly extensively despite loathing them, because my airport is DEN.
There are countless other airlines at AUS that well serve the market. He even said he flies WN to DCA nonstop.
Everyone knows the LUS fleet is deficient and Parker is in no rush to address it.
@Josh G – “overly generous industry leading AAdvantage program” priceless!!!
Rather than spend money lookin’ good, they should invest in customer comfort – MORE LEG ROOM!
I don’t like the new livery, but I hate the old livery. The bare metal just looks old and cheap.
@ Mallthus
If that is Gary’s reason for flying AA, than that means he is the dummy. If AA is so bad, than he would fly another airline and vote with his wallet. Instead, he is falling in line with their strategy of offering an inferior product at about the same cost. So AA seems to be the smart one in this relationship.
I would like American to return to a more classic livery look.Paint the fuselage silver,instead of grey.Return to the eagle on the tail and a blue or blue/white/red tricolor stripe below the windows.
How much weight did the new paint add to the old aluminum skins? Seems like it would impact weight and fuel usage (carbon emissions). Anyone know? It’s odd that they’re now asking for flyers to donate money for carbon offsets! Seems pretty ironic.
I really don’t like how they designed the new livery tbh I like the bare metal more, they could of atleast removed the chrome and make it white and update the cheat lines they have