The hottest airline liveries right now

Airlines are always reinventing themselves and their branding, and with it brings changes in the liveries worn by their aircraft.

For many of us it’s hard to see a classic airline livery disappear, especially when its replacement seems like it was designed in 15 minutes on the back of an envelope.

If that’s you, check out our book Lost Airline Colours of Europe for a trip down memory lane!

With time, new liveries often grow on us (Lufthansa’s recent change is one that has won me over) and become accepted.

Some are a hit right from the start.

Here are what we consider to be some of the hottest airline liveries right now. Let us know if you agree in the comments below!

Aeroflot

This is one of the controversial new liveries to appear recently. Many people loved the previous Aeroflot livery (or even the classic 1970s one!). But I think this new scheme on their brand new Airbus A350s looks incredible.

ANA’s Flying Honu’s

I’m trying not to list special liveries and logojets in this article, but the three ‘flying honu’ Airbus A380s introduced by ANA All Nippon Airways for its Honolulu flights could be considered a specific livery for this fleet, rather than special livery. So here they are.

Middle East Airlines

Hot off the press, this new livery for Middle East Airlines will be introduced first on its new Airbus A321neo fleet, and then slowly rolled out across its other aircraft. What do you think?

Bamboo Airways

Tokimvuong [CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]

SAS

I don’t think there’s anything groundbreaking or unusual about the new SAS livery (introduced with its first Airbus A320neo and A350-900 deliveries), but as expected it is quite smart. Enthusiasts are flocking to capture images of this new livery.

Aer Lingus

Another livery which may have grown on you is the new scheme from Aer Lingus. Slowly its fleet is being repainted in it, and new deliveries like the Airbus A321neoLR are arriving wearing it.

It still retains much of the history of its predecessors, but brings the airline up to date.

United Airlines

Traditionally US carriers tend to wear fairly conservative liveries without the flair of Asian carriers. United Airlines kept to that principle with their new livery, but in my opinion it is a welcome change which plays on the heritage of its Continental and United constituent parts and their history.

Gulf Air

While enthusiasts may be flocking to catch the magnificent Gulf Air retro Boeing 787, in my opinion they should be just as keen on the new livery introduced by the airline last year. It looks really smart on the airline’s aircraft.

Aegean Airlines

Introduced at the end of 2019 with the deliveries of its first Airbus A320neo aircraft. Greece’s Aegean Airlines has replaced its older scheme with this modern livery, introducing bolder blues and titling.

Cabo Verde Airlines

Standuvall / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)

Only a small operator, Cabo Verde Airlines has a fleet of four Boeing 757 airliners which it uses to link the islands to Europe, Africa, North and South America. It revealed this new livery recently, which is slightly different on each aircraft.

Sun Country

America’s Sun Country Airlines started rolling out this new livery last year following a poll of its employees who voted on their favourite design. It isn’t drastically different to the previous livery, introducing a little more red and white.