American Airlines rebranding ‘very soon’

[FWAAA]

The Wall St Journal said it was done at Leading Edge Aviation Services.

Mr. Horton estimated it will take three to five years to completely switch to the new look, which will include revamping airports and aircraft interiors, bringing in new employee uniforms and redoing the company's website and mobile apps. But he said a big push will occur in 2013 and 2014 to get the planes repainted. Some of the paint work will be outsourced to Leading Edge Aviation Services Inc., a Santa Ana, Calif., company that has a paint shop in Victorville.

Leading Edge has been lifted by airline mergers in recent years, having put nearly 500 Northwest Airlines planes into Delta Air Lines Inc.'s DAL -1.45%logo after the two combined in 2008. More recently, it has been repainting United Airlines planes into Continental Airlines colors as a result of the 2010 merger that created United Continental Holdings Inc. UAL -2.72%

Because aircraft manufacturers typically provide an airline's chosen paint job as part of the purchase price, American will be getting a lot of free paint as it takes delivery of hundreds of new aircraft in the coming years. But it also intends to repaint its existing planes that it plans to retain, Mr. Horton said. A 777 paint job can cost $100,000 to $200,000, depending on the number of colors involved, and a smaller Airbus A320 can cost $50,000 or more.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323968304578247681812331570.html (get around the paywall by searching "American" and "Horton" in Google news)

Many years ago, Boeing concluded that painting might be a little cheaper than polishing due to the need to pay high wages to the polishing employees and that those costs outweighed the extra weight of the paint.

http://www.boeing.com/commercial/aeromagazine/aero_05/textonly/fo01txt.html (1998 costs used in study)

But that was when fuel was about $0.55/gal and airline maintenance personnel made more money than today. Today, fuel is $3.20/gal and, unfortunately, maintenance wages have either contracted or not grown by much. That makes polishing the clear winner in lower costs as the several hundred pounds of paint have to be carried every flight with $3.20/gal fuel.

 

[amt66]

Who is US Air?

Fugly

 

[777 / 767 / 757 Love]

Hey, AA flight attendants look hideous? No way! You must have us mixed up with some other airline?? We look good no matter what uniform we wear!!

LOL!!! Awesome post....best one I have seen in a while and I couldn't agree more, especially since you don't bite the hand that feeds you (literally!!!) and I have found a happy FA, is a happy customer

Cheers,
777 / 767 / 757

 

[700UW]

Its way better than AA's new paint job.

 

[xUT]

Its way better than AA's new paint job.

Who cares?
You are an employee. Been screwed many times over.
You don't have a say in the livery or any other corporate transaction.
If you like it, then good for you, but corporate doesn't GAS about you or your opinion.
B) xUT

 

[Bob Owens]

The Wall St Journal said it was done at Leading Edge Aviation Services.



http://online.wsj.co...1812331570.html (get around the paywall by searching "American" and "Horton" in Google news)

Many years ago, Boeing concluded that painting might be a little cheaper than polishing due to the need to pay high wages to the polishing employees and that those costs outweighed the extra weight of the paint.

http://www.boeing.co...ly/fo01txt.html (1998 costs used in study)

But that was when fuel was about $0.55/gal and airline maintenance personnel made more money than today. Today, fuel is $3.20/gal and, unfortunately, maintenance wages have either contracted or not grown by much. That makes polishing the clear winner in lower costs as the several hundred pounds of paint have to be carried every flight with $3.20/gal fuel.

Composite must be painted. If not it absorbs moisture which freezes and eventually causes delamination. The article you cited mentions this;

Protective paint is used in certain areas to prevent corrosion, and it is used on all composites to prevent erosion and moisture ingress.

My guess is the painted composites are much, much lighter than the polished aluminum.

Boeing probably was not using TWU wages when they figured that polishing was more expensive than fuel.

 

[IORFA]

The paint was done at VCV (Victorville California)... The -800 was supposed to be in DFW at 2 in the morning but didn't depart VCV till after 4.. The aircraft had dead batteries when pulled out and LA flew a pair up to VCV to save the day.. Landed at DFW I think around 7-8..

Point of clarification. AA didn't fly the batteries to VCV. They asked, and no pilot would do it. AA was desperate, and they wouldn't meet the pilots demands for doing it. They found some company from BUR to do it. International Jet Aviation I think, i can't remember exactly. It was on Flight Aware. I don't think that Thursday was the original day they planned to unveil. I think the battery fiasco moved that day forward. They managed 3 hours notice for the media. If the plane was in DFW under cover of darkness, it could have all been done next week with the new uniforms and whatever else they wanted to showcase. Landing at 8:15am screws all that up. Plus a 777-300ER landed at 10pm wednesday at VCV and I'm sure the original plan was for BOTH to be painted at the unveil. Just my opinion, I mean why would you want the star of the show to be naked?

 

[2ndGENAMT]

For the record, I think the new livery is Hideous.. The American logo running along the windows looks as if it was shot up by a 30's gangster with a tommy gun and the eagle has morphed into a dove or seagull, the flag is unrecognizable as a U.S. standard..

I believe the designers were progressive, globalization stooges with Horton and the gang in tow.. You can't have a global companies logo resembling a soverign countries flag and one of its national symbols, that may be offensive to a paying passenger and we can't have that.. The United States is Dying!!

 

[BigMac]

The AMERICAN logo shoulda been spelt "MURIKA".

 

[DFWFSC]

3JT just flew DFW-FTW for a tail paint..? Updated design or something else?

 

[Tex-Mech]

3JT just flew DFW-FTW for a tail paint..? Updated design or something else?

Hopefully they just paint over the tail.

 

[1AA]

http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/2013/01/consultant-mike-boyd-doesnt-like-the-new-american-airlines-design.html/#commentzone

 

[malikie]

I see no incorporation of the US livery or branding necessary.

It's dull, bland, more tarnished than AA's, and the look & feel still screams shades of Stephen Wolf to me. And eliminating the name US Airways would be an immediate improvement to those who worked for HP.

Amen to that.

 

[NewHampshire Black Bears]

"Never say Never"
It's a phrase that's time-proven...over and over and over again.
But first the paint job.
The Tail s u c k s...with a CAPITAL "S".
The rest,....(as W T said) Really doesn't make a difference loooong term . (It does look though, like the "Hound" !

Merger or no Merger. (I'm guessing merger) Plausible.."NO"....Possible.."YES", meaning that IF there's a merger, and the FACT that with a combined AA/HP/US, that N O work group, except the Flight crews,...Has the BALLS to go on strike, that it's "Possible" that AA/US/Horton and Parker .. " C O U L D " Hit-a-Home-Run in all this craziness, and be back to the number 1 airline in the world, in a lot of ways.
PLAUSABLE ? .... N F Way ! POSSIBLE ? ..... 'Never say Never' !

 

[700UW]

Amen to that.

Funny that design was way after Wolf let and was done by Parker and his regime. Wolf did the total blue and gray themed livery.