The new Salmon-Thirty-Salmon livery shown off in Anchorage. Image from Alaska Airlines. CLICK FOR LARGER.
One of the best liveries out there was Alaska Airline’s original Salmon-Thirty-Salmon livery on a Boeing 737-400. The airline re-painted the old salmon livery a while back and many have missed it (including me). Have no fear – a new salmon livery is here. This week, Alaska unveiled their Salmon-Thirty-Salmon II livery in Anchorage and it is even better than the first.
The new Salmon-30-Salmon has winglets. Image from Alaska Airlines. CLICK FOR LARGER.
This time, a Boeing 737-800 was used as a larger canvas. The fish-plane comes in at 91,000 pounds and measures at almost 129 feet. Alaska calls this “the most intricately painted commercial aircraft in the world.”
There are not too many differences between the older salmon livery and the newer one. The concept remained the same; to paint a huge salmon on a plane. One of the biggest changes is the fact that the 737-800 has winglets with scales. Also the “Alaska” name is painted in a salmon color versus white of the previous design.
How could you not smile flying such a beautiful plane? Image from Alaska Airlines. CLICK FOR LARGER.
The design used four gallons of Mylar paint to create an iridescent sparkle over the nearly 3500 fish scales. Crews worked 27 days straight in Oklahoma City and used 21 unique colors to get this amazing livery completed.
“Today, we are proud to introduce the largest flying fish to all of Alaska and the world,” said Marilyn Romano, Alaska Airlines’ regional vice president of the state of Alaska. “Not only will this special plane spotlight the best, most sustainable seafood harvest in the world, it will also remind us of the important role the seafood industry has on the Alaska economy. On behalf of the 1,700 Alaska Airlines employees working in the state, we are also proud to safely fly the thousands of men and women who work in the seafood industry throughout the Last Frontier.”
Brandon Farris caught the S7S landing in Seattle.
A big thanks to Brandon for letting me share his photo of the Salmon-30-Salmon landing at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
The above video highlights the process of painting the Salmon-30-Salmon livery.
Thai Airways International (THAI) has took delivery of its first A380 this week. What a great looking aircraft/livery combo. Image from Airbus.
Earlier in the week, Thai Airways International (THAI) took delivery of their first Airbus A380. The aircraft is configured to have 12 private suites in First Class, 60 in Royal Silk Class (aka Business) and 435 in Economy.
Thai plans to put their first of six A380’s into service in October on their Bangkok to Hong Kong and Bangkok to Singapore routes.
There are nine airlines that currently operate the A380 and I think this livery is the best of them.
Some liveries just do not translate well from a single decker aircraft to a huge double decker — the canvas is so much larger. I have always liked Thai’s livery and I feel that it works quite well on the A380. What do you think?
Belavia Boeing 737-500. Image from Wikipedia/CC/Biggerben.
Belavia Belarusian Airlines was founded in March of 1996 and is based at Minsk International Airport in Belarus. The airline is owned by the government and flies to destinations in Asia, Europe and Africa.
The airline currently operates a classic fleet of Boeing 737-300s, 737-500s, CRJ200s and a few Tupolev Tu-154Ms. They have two Embraer 175s and one E-190 on order in hopes to update their fleet.
Even though this is a smaller airline, they have one of the best fleet pages I have seen. You are able to check out external and internal 360 tours and I have to admit that I spent quite a bit of time taking a tour of the Tu-154M.
The livery is one of the few left that remind me of the classic Aeroflot livery. You do not see many liveries that have a cheat-line anymore — they are a dying breed.
A classic Boeing 737-200 seen in Sky Airlines livery. Photo by alobos flickr.
You don’t see too many Boeing 737-200s flying around the world much anymore and especially one with such a cool looking livery. When I recently landed at Comodoro Arturo Merino Benàtez International Airport (SCL) in Santiago, Chile, this livery caught my eye.
Sky Airline (notice the lack of an “s”) is based at SCL and was founded in 2001. It is Chile’s second largest airline and is considered a low-cost carrier. The airline mostly operates domestically, but has international routes to Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil and Peru.
The airline operates a fleet of Airbus A319s, A320s and is in the processes of phasing out the classic Boeing 737-200.
I seem to be a sucker for a blue/green livery and with the swooping line and palm trees on the tail, it looks slick. Although I am sure the passenger experience will improve with the elimination of the 737-200 from the fleet, it is a bit sad from the AvGeek perspective.
This is probably the worst livery I have ever designed. I am betting you can do better.
How rad would it be to design a custom livery and see it on a real plane? Your wish is All Nippon Airway’s (ANA) command. From now until September 30, 2012, you can submit a unique design for a livery on a Boeing 767 and if your design is chosen, it will be painted onto a real-life Boeing 767-300. You will also get free tickets to see the aircraft unveiled in Tokyo.
Do not worry if you have no Photoshop skills; you can download the entry form, color with crayons and mail it to Tokyo.
The contest is being held to celebrate the 60th anniversary of ANA, so use that as your creative starting point… or maybe not, since that is what I did.
