New logo: Royal Brunei

Royal Brunei Airlines is the flag carrier of the sultanate of Brunei, a small nation at the edge of Borneo. This week, on October 30, it unveiled a new logo and livery at the Brunei International Airport.

The previous logo dated back to the mid-80s and had been virtually unchanged for two decades and a half. It was an abstraction Brunei's flag as a tailfin, and the use of national symbols continues with its successor. The new livery is however more restrained and elegant, "classic styled" as the airline itself puts it. The outdated Bookman Light Italic is replaced by a lighter sans serif. The tailfins are now all yellow and feature a new RB monogram.
Read more »

New logo: Fiji Airways

Air Pacific, the national airline of Fiji, announced a few months ago that it would change its name to Fiji Airways, reinstating the name it had used until the early 1970s. Last week, on August 17, a new visual identity was unveiled that is scheduled to launch in early 2013.

The new logo contains a symbol, called the "teteva", created by a local artist named Makereta Matemosi in traditional indingenous Masi style. Together with the dark brown colour, the new identity is much more rooted in the Fiji islands and its culture.

It stands in stark contrast with the previous identity and its 1970s stripes in yellow, orange, red and blue. The logo was last changed in 1999.
Read more »

New logo: Air Malta

Air Malta, the national airline of Malta, unveiled a new corporate identity yesterday, July 31, at an event called "The Flying Pride of Malta". It comes with new livery and is part of a restructuring to turn the loss-making airline around. The colourful livery has the tailfin and the back of the fuselage painted red with different colours inserted. The front has the word "Malta" in large red letters.

The rebrand work was carried out by Futurebrand in London who were hired earlier this year. Local media are reporting that they were paid €400,000.

Air Malta's previous livery and corporate identity was introduced in late 1989. The planes will be repainted from November.
Read more »

New logo: Corsair International

Corsairfly, a French airline belonging to the travel group TUI, announced last week that it would change its name to Corsair International. At the same time, it introduces a new corporate identity and a tagline that translates into "Open other horizons".

Corsair was founded in 1981, and became a part of TUI in 2000. Later on, the planes were repainted with TUI's corporate identity, although Corsairfly never adopted the TUIfly name used by the corporation's other airlines. This rebrand means the airline will once again have an independent identity.

The new identity was reportedly created by Dream On, an agency otherwise known for motion branding. The blue logo should remind us of the sky and the sails "give a special status and a noble representaion of travel". The airline will start repainting planes in July this year.
Read more »

New logo: Malaysia Airlines

The Malaysian flag carrier Malaysia Airlines unveiled a new livery yesterday, March 8, when they showcased a new Airbus A380-800. The red and blue lines of the previous livery have been replaced by lines in three blue colour tones. The airline has also introduced an updated logo.

The previous identity was launched on October 15, 1987 and created by Johan Ariff of Johan Design Associates. At the same time, the company changed its name to Malaysia Airlines in a bid to strengthen the image of its home country, having previously been marketed as Malaysian Airline System or the initials MAS. The previous red colour was complemented with blue and the airline symbol, a wau bulan or Kelantan kite, was tilted to appear more aerodynamic.
Read more »

Spanair brand history

On January 27, the Spanish airline Spanair became one of the first European airlines this year to suspend its operations, followed by Hungary's Malév within a week, and perhaps more to come as debt-burdened governments withdraw support from loss-making airlines. To mark Spanair's demise, here's a summary of how the airline's corporate identity has changed through the years.

Spanair was formed in December 1986, and commenced flights in March 1988. The logo at the top of this page was probably the airline's first logo, a wavy orange-blue symbol and a Berling Bold wordmark. It was initially a charter airline, and the planes had a plain white livery with the symbol on the tailfin.
Read more »

Malév brand history

The end of a national airline means the end of a brand that has been a source of pride for a nation for well over a half century. The changing structure of the worldwide aviation market has seen the collapse of the likes of Sabena, Swissair, Olympic Airlines and Alitalia. Some brands were confined to history, others were carried over to a slimmer organisation formed to fill the hole left by the flag carrier.

Malév Hungarian Airlines, the Hungarian state-owned airline, is the latest flag carrier to meet this fate, as it abruptly ceased operations last week after two decades of economic struggles. Unless a plan to revive the airline is realised, this will likely mean the end of a brand that has been in operation since 1956. To mark this occasion, here's a short summary of Malév's corporate identity through its existence.
Read more »

New logo: Air Inuit

Air Inuit is a small Canadian airline that operates passanger and cargo services to Canada's Arctic regions. Having used an out-dated three-stripe logo for decades, it unveiled a new look in December. The new airplane liveries show three interwoven birds on the tailfin and the end of the fuselage.

Nunatsiaq Online published an image of the new livery on December 4. The new look is yet to launch on Air Inuit's website.
Read more »

New logo: ExpressJet

Back in July the American regional airline Atlantic Southeast Airlines (ASA) announced that it would adopt the name SureJet as it was merging with ExpressJet, a previous competitor. The plan backfired after protests from employees, and the name was retracted faster than you can say "Gap logo".

Last Friday, October 14, it was announced that the name ExpressJet would be adopted for the entire company. The new name and logo had been rooted in the company through an internal vote. The slightly altered ASA symbol that was used for the retracted SureJet logo will be used for the new ExpressJet logo.
Read more »

New logo: Air Seychelles

In September, it was reported that Air Seychelles, the national airline of the Seychelles, is introducing a new logo and livery.

Air Seychelles' fairy tern symbol dates back to the 1980s, and this refresh is the most profound change to the symbol since its introduction. The airline last updated its logo around 2007, when the logo-type was altered.

The new identity is inspired by the nature of the Seychelles and the shape should remind one of hills and leaves. Instead of two distinct green and red shades, the logo now features many bright tones to provide depth. The fairy terns have have been softened, providing a "streamlined" effect. The word "air" is a lighter shade of blue, while "seychelles" is darker, symbolizing sky and ocean, respectively.

A press image of the new livery can be found on Airliners.net.

A press release talking about a "soft launch" was sent out around September 19. The new logo is yet to launch on the company website, which has had the press release about the rebrand removed. It is republished here for posterity.
Read more »

New logo: Solaseed Air

Skynet Asia Airways is a Japanese low-fare airline, which made its first flight in 2002. On May 12, it announced that it would abandon its old boring name for a more exciting one. From July 1, it will be called Solaseed Air.

The new name is a play on words which combines the Japanese word "sora", which means sky, and "seed". It should also remind one of the second half of the musical scale, as in Do Re Mi Fa So La Si Do.

The brand positioning talks about spreading seeds of smiles, which is reflected in the logo, the pistachio green color and identity applications.

Skynet Asia Airways logo.

The previous logo has been used at least since the airline started flying in 2002. It should be noted that Skynet Asia Airways still be the official company name.
Read more »