Great white hope...
Green day is over as Aer Lingus aims to wow flyers with new look
WHISPERS of ‘whitewash’ could be clearly heard from the press pack amid the pomp and ceremony as Aer Lingus unveiled its eagerly anticipated new look yesterday
Ireland’s flag-carrier is known around the world for its green livery and distinctive tailfin shamrock logo.
The shamrock is still there, but in a radical (ahem) departure, the planes will all be repainted white – and it will take until 2021 to repaint the fleet of 50 jets.
The rebrand is estimated to have cost €1million in consultancy fees before the cost of repainting each of its planes, which happens every seven to eight years. The airline is set to reveal the new Aer Lingus uniform later this year. Travel industry expert Eoghan Corry of travelextra.ie said of the new white colour: ‘It all looks very well in Dublin Airport when you’ve got them all lined up at the gates but when you drop them into Chicago or Boston, it doesn’t look distinctive. What they’ve had since 1996, almost accidentally, was very distinctive. Very green. You could actually see a plane coming in to land and tell from a huge distance away if it was Aer Lingus. They’ve lost that.’ The airline has been slow to rebrand in the past. The previous one was in 1996; the last one before that was 1974.
He said: ‘You’ve got to be very certain about what you’re doing if it’s only every 20 years. The problem is that when you get the branding and advertising agencies in, there’s a great deal of “group-think” and they tend to follow what’s been trendy for a year or two. So it looks like what Aer Lingus has got is a knock-down version of what Iberia got and they’re in the same stable.’
Aer Lingus boss Seán Doyle said: ‘The refreshed brand reflects an airline that connects those living in Montreal to Marseilles; in Berlin to Boston; as well as those in Cork to Croatia.’
The revamp looked at 50 different shamrock designs before picking the winner – the 50 rejected designs were shown to the media.
These include two-tone shamrocks, ones with orange backgrounds, multi-coloured rainbow shamrocks and shamrock silhouettes.
The airline did not say how much the rebrand cost but said it was being done in ‘a costeffective manner.’