If you like dots and simplicity, boy do I have a livery for you — Jat Airways. The airline was founded in 1927, which makes it one of the world’s older airlines. JAT is the national airline of Serbia and operates out of Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport (BEG).
JAT currently operates a fleet of Boeing 737-300 and ATR-72 aircraft that fly to mostly international destinations in Europe. The airline has had quite a few different liveries through out the years and some better than others.
The JAT Yugoslav Airlines livery seen on this DC-9 in 1986 has a very classic looking livery with the retro “JAT” circle on the tail. Then, with the introduction of the Boeing 737-300 to the fleet, JAT went with a similar livery, but with bare metal instead of white paint — not quite as nice looking in my opinion. In 2001, JAT updated their livery with a waving flag design on their tail and a predominate “JAT” on the front of the fuselage — which looked great on a DC-10.
To help celebrate their official name change to “Jat Airways” in 2003, the airline decided to hold a competition for a new livery. A simple livery involving dots ended up winning and is now on their entire fleet.
You might want to make sure that the kids are out of the room when looking at this livery — it is not pretty. A while back I put on Twitter that I think the worst liveries I have covered were Air Do and Air Midwest. I asked people if they had any that might be worse and @BrunetJohn stepped up with Dubrovnik Airlines.
For a livery to get on a plane, there have to be multiple people that approve it. I mean it costs the same amount of money to paint a good livery or bad one — which always makes me wonder how liveries like this every see the light of day.
Sure, the concept of putting a pretty photo to show where you fly is not a bad idea (and it is pretty — close up shot). However, this looks more like it was designed in Microsoft Word than almost any livery I have seen.
The word “airline” doesn’t even match up with the name and is oddly next to that picture. On the left side of the plane, it is no better with the name being oddly close to the picture.
According to Flight Global, the airline suspended operations on October 23, 2011. There is a possibility they could come back into service and I wish them the best — I only ask to think about going with a new livery.
There have been many times where I have dis-liked a livery and some of you have dis-agreed with me. Can anyone disagree with this one?
HI-RES IMAGE (click for larger). Air New Zealand’s All Black Boeing 777-300ER comes out of the Boeing paint hangar. Photo by Boeing.
This is not the first aircraft that Air New Zealand has painted black for the World Champion All Blacks rugby team, but it sure is the biggest. Actually this is the world’s largest commercially operated aircraft to be painted completely black.
“It’s a sensational looking aircraft and will really turn heads at airports around the world,” said All Black’s No. 8 loose forward Kieran Read. “I reckon they should paint all their planes like this!”
The special paint job took Boeing just over a week (two days longer than a standard 777 paint job) and 14 painters worked 24 hour shifts — not an easy task.
“It was, without a doubt, one of the most challenging paint jobs we’ve ever done, but the paint team was up for the challenge and the results are absolutely outstanding. I am very proud of what the paint team has achieved,” said Jeff Klemann, Boeing Vice President Everett Delivery Center.
One might think the black paint would cause the aircraft to get too hot, but in reality, the 330 tvs on board the aircraft will create more heat than the paint job.
Air New Zealand is hoping to take delivery of this special 777-300ER in late January 2012 and it will initiate normally schedule flights shortly afterwards. By mid next year, the airline plans to have six additional planes painted in the all black livery, including two Airbus A320s and three Beech 1900D turbo-props. Here is also a video highlighting the creation of the new livery…
Retro A320 in the air. Photo by stevesaviation/Flickr
Aer Lingus retro livery on the ground. Photo by namcys11/Flickr.
Retro airline liveries — who doesn’t love this stuff? Aer Lingus recently unveiled their livery from the 1960’s on an Airbus A320 to celebrate their 75th birthday.
Aer Lingus CEO Christoph Mueller said, “2011 is a very special year for Aer Lingus as it marks the airline’s 75th anniversary. Throughout the 75 years we have carried out our mission of connecting Ireland with the world, transporting millions of customers annually.”
I’d like to thank David for inviting me back to his blog; I think you will agree with me that David’s coverage of the Boeing 747-800 First Flight has been exceptional, so for someone who is 4850 miles away, the coverage has made me feel like I am there. Credit for finding this livery has to go to Phil (aka @PlansAirports, aka MR @AirlinesAngel), who spotted it during his tour of Indonesia.
This Air Asia A320 is themed for their Air Asia Junior Jet Club, which is aimed at their young frequent flyers and features members of the Jet Crew. Air Asia, to date, has carried over 82 million passengers, and the fleet has grown from 2 to 85 aircraft and I hear that the staff’s favourite aircraft is the Junior Jet Club plane, so if you are travelling around Asia you might be lucky to be onboard this colourful aircraft.
