easyJet unveils new livery for its twentieth year of flying

easyjet has launched a new aircraft livery – the first change to the look of the airline’s iconic white and orange fleet since easyJet.com replaced the call centre number on the fuselage in 1998.

There are two main design changes. easyJet’s trademark orange has been extended from the tail fin on to the fuselage to create a larger space for the easyJet logo which is 15% bigger than before. Secondly, an orange stripe reflecting the design language of easyJet’s advertising has been introduced on to the fuselage. This enables the easyJet logo to be reversed out of that colour – in accordance with brand guidelines – and to give the plane a sleek, more modern look. Finally, the «.com» has been dropped.

The airline currently has a fleet of 226 Aircraft – a mixture of A319s and A320s. The new livery will feature on all new easyJet aircraft deliveries from April 2015. easyJet has 197 Airbus A320 aircraft on order, the majority of which will replace older A319 aircraft currently in the fleet.

In addition, younger planes in easyJet’s fleet will have the new livery applied when they are scheduled to be repainted, typically every six years. Taken together this means 29 aircraft will be flying with the new look by the end of 2015 and 50% of the fleet will sport the new livery by the end of 2017.

A specialist team is needed to repaint an aircraft which takes around seven days on average.

During easyJet’s 19 year history there have been only two aircraft styles. The first, seen in 1995 on easyJet’s first aircraft, was different to anything else flying as it advertised the booking number along the fuselage in giant lettering. The second, which entered service in 1998, displayed easyJet.com across the fuselage which reflected the important move the airline made to online booking.

Peter Duffy, easyJet’s Commercial Director, commented:

– easyJet’s aircraft livery is one of the most recognised in aviation. As we approach our 20th birthday in November, we felt a refreshed livery would complement the many changes already made to easyJet including allocated seating, transparent prices, flexible tickets and our award winning mobile app.

– As you would expect from easyJet this is a low cost makeover — all our new planes will be painted with the new livery, but we’ll only re-paint the old ones as needed. It could take five years for all the fleet to sport the new paint job!

– Like easyJet itself, we wanted our livery to be as relevant for the next twenty years as it has been for the past twenty. The final design was selected by nearly 4000 staff and customers.»

Alex Wood at Holmes Wood design agency who worked with easyJet’s in house engineering team on the new livery commented:

– We have spent a lot of time getting to know the personality and attitude of the easyJet brand and this new livery design was a direct translation of that. easyJet’s recent brand update reflected their growth from low cost airline to one of Europe’s largest carriers and with this came a new attitude and a new confidence – one that wasn’t reflected in their current livery. This new livery is a carefully considered design evolution that is both confident and fresh and we feel it reflects easyJet’s ethos of modern simplicity. «

Mr. Andreas Ossenkopf, Head of Aviation at Mankiewicz who provide the coatings for the aircraft commented:

– Mankiewicz is very proud to be the chosen coatings supplier to easyJet. We take great pride in the manufacture and supply of the most high quality and innovative Aerospace Coatings. easyJet and Mankiewicz have the same philosophy to combine quality with efficiency and we are delighted to support the high quality image of easyJet.»