When airlines change their design: rebranding, transition periods and the last old liveries

An airline rebrand usually begins with a big show: hangar doors open, spotlights on, and in front of the audience stands a freshly painted aircraft in the new design. For spotters, though, the exciting phase only starts afterward. Between the unveiling and the moment the last aircraft sheds its old look, there are often years – with mixed fleets, unusual intermediate stages and, in the end, a handful of registrations that still wear the old design. This guide explains how a livery change works at airlines, how to recognize the phases and how to still get the last examples of a vanishing livery in front of your lens.

Livery changes: the short answer

When an airline changes its design, the whole fleet is not repainted at once. The new design arrives aircraft by aircraft, usually when an aircraft is going into the shop for a longer period anyway. Newly delivered aircraft arrive directly in the new look, while older types shortly before retirement often stay in the old one. That creates a transition period in which both designs fly side by side – and, in the end, a small remaining group that is especially sought after among spotters.

Why airlines change their design in the first place

A livery is the biggest billboard an airline owns. Accordingly, it is changed rarely and with deliberation. The typical occasions:

• Merger or takeover: Two airlines become one, and a shared look is meant to show that to the outside world. After the merger of United and Continental in 2010, the new company kept the name United but adopted Continental’s globe design.
• New start-up or successor: When a new company takes over the operations of an old one, it needs an identity of its own. ITA Airways took over aircraft from the defunct Alitalia in October 2021 and presented a completely blue design on its first day of operations.
• Ownership change: When an airline no longer belongs to a group, the group’s trademarks disappear. Condor wore Thomas Cook titles and tail logo from 2002; the Condor name returned to the fuselage in 2004, but the Thomas Cook logo stayed on the tail for a long time. Only in 2022 did a completely independent look follow.
• Change of strategy: A new business model, a new target group or a premium ambition is meant to become visible.
• Modernization: Sometimes a design has simply aged. In 2018, Lufthansa replaced the design familiar for decades, with its yellow crane circle, with a variant with a dark blue background and a dark blue tail.

There are also technical reasons. Until 2013, American Airlines flew a large part of its fleet with unpainted, polished aluminum – a tradition justified with weight and cost arguments. The rebrand in January 2013 brought a silver-painted fuselage with a stylized flag on the tail. Which design elements make up a livery is explained in the article Livery design explained.

How the repaint works in practice

Completely repainting an airliner means removing the old paint, preparing the surface, applying primer, color coats and clear coat, and putting on the lettering according to specification. The aircraft sits in a paint hangar for several days and is missing from the rotation. How that works in detail is shown in How an aircraft is painted; what a paint job costs and how long it lasts is covered in Cost, weight and lifespan of an aircraft paint job.

Four typical strategies follow from this:

When an aircraft goes into the shop depends on its individual maintenance program. That is why the order of repaints often looks arbitrary from the outside: an older aircraft is already repainted, a younger one of the same series is not yet. Background on maintenance intervals is provided in Aircraft maintenance: A-check to C-check, and large facilities such as Lufthansa Technik are introduced in the article Maintenance facilities and shipyards in Europe.

The transition period: what you see at the fence

During a rebrand, an airline’s fleet is more colorful than at almost any other time. For you that means every sighting of the same airline can produce a different picture. These are the variants you typically encounter.

Variant	How to recognize it	Typical occasion	Rarity
New design	new colors, lettering and logo on fuselage and tail	new delivery or repaint	becomes standard over time
Old design	familiar paint scheme, not yet repainted	maintenance still pending or type is being phased out	becomes rarer over time
Hybrid	old base design but new titles or a new tail	quick changeover after a takeover or name change	usually time-limited
Special case	partial repaint, third-party operator on a wet lease, white fuselages with a new logo	leasing, capacity shortage	often one-offs

Mixed forms deserve an article of their own: Recognizing hybrid liveries is about how to cleanly classify lease returns, merger leftovers and intermediate stages. An example from Condor’s history: an A320 once flew in Condor colors but with Thomas Cook titles and the Thomas Cook logo.

Case studies: how differently rebrandings play out

British Airways: the design that was taken back

In 1997, British Airways introduced a new look in which the tails were painted with changing art motifs from around the world. The campaign was meant to make the airline look more global, but it met heavy criticism in Britain – right up to former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who demonstratively covered the motif on a model aircraft. When about half the fleet had been redesigned, the airline pulled the emergency brake: instead of more art tails came the Union Flag design “Chatham Dockyard,” which was initially intended only for Concorde. In 2001 it was decided to equip the entire fleet with it. The last art tails only disappeared around 2006 – a lesson in how long a withdrawn design stays visible. Today British Airways flies with the Chatham Dockyard flag.

American Airlines: from bare metal to paint

With the 2013 rebrand, American Airlines said goodbye to polished aluminum. Interesting for spotters: in the course of the merger with US Airways, the airline painted numerous aircraft in historic designs of predecessor companies – such as Piedmont, PSA, America West, US Airways, Reno Air, TWA, Allegheny and AirCal. In addition there was a Boeing 737-800 in the AstroJet design and one in the classic polished look that was standard from 1967 to 2013. The old everyday design thus became a retro livery. You can find more about the airline in the profile of American Airlines.

Condor: stripes for the whole fleet

On April 4, 2022, Condor presented a new brand identity with striped fuselages in five color variants – yellow, red, blue, green and beige. The first aircraft was ferried to Frankfurt the same day. One exception is revealing: the Boeing 767-300ERs were no longer repainted because the type was to leave the fleet in 2024. The long-haul aircraft thus flew in the old “Sunny Heart” design until their farewell in March 2024 – a classic example of a phasing-out livery on a phasing-out type.

ITA Airways: new airline, old aircraft

When Alitalia ceased operations on October 14, 2021, ITA Airways took over 49 of its predecessor’s aircraft the following day. The new design with a mother-of-pearl blue fuselage was presented at launch, but some of the aircraft taken over naturally had not yet been repainted. For spotters, that created a short, well-documentable phase in which Alitalia paint schemes flew for a different operator.

Finding the last ones: step by step

Toward the end of a transition phase, the old standard design practically becomes a special livery: few registrations, high demand. Here’s how to approach the search.

1. Create an inventory list: Note all the airline’s registrations that still wear the old design. The basis is current photos from databases and community sightings, each with a date.
2. Keep checking against it: If a registration suddenly shows up in new paint, cross it off. A longer shop visit is often a warning sign – the aircraft may then come back in the new look.
3. Track registrations live: Set up notifications for the remaining aircraft. How that works with flight tracking services is shown in Tracking an aircraft by registration and Setting up aircraft alerts.
4. Watch the rotations: Short- and medium-haul aircraft change destinations daily, while long-haul aircraft often come in fixed rhythms. Several sightings in a row reveal a pattern.
5. Plan the spot and the light: When the aircraft comes, the light should be right. At large hubs such as Frankfurt Airport you have the best chances, because many rotations of a home airline converge there – for example at the Zeppelinheim viewing platform.

Keep in mind: the registrations that fly in the old design last are often the oldest aircraft of a type. When a type is phased out, the livery and the aircraft disappear at the same time. How to find out an aircraft’s age is covered in the article How old is this aircraft?.

When the old design returns as retro

Many vanished liveries come back years later – as a deliberate retro livery. This was especially impressive in 2019 at British Airways: for its 100th anniversary, three Boeing 747-400s wore historic designs of BOAC, Negus and Landor, plus an Airbus A319 in the colors of British European Airways. The Landor and Negus aircraft were retired in 2020, the BOAC 747 kept its paint scheme until retirement, and the A319 in the BEA design stayed in service.

Lufthansa also uses its design history: the Boeing 747-8 D-ABYT has worn a retro livery since 2015 that recalls earlier decades. Since February 2026, an Airbus A321 with a retro paint scheme has also been flying. Which retro designs exist at other airlines and how to find them is shown in Airline retro liveries. The great classics of design history are gathered in Legendary airline liveries, and anniversary paint schemes for round birthdays can be found under Anniversary liveries.

What to keep in mind

• Note the date with the photo. In a rebrand, the date of the shot is almost as important as the registration. It is the only way to trace later when an aircraft was repainted.
• Keep variants apart. Record in your logbook whether you saw a registration in the old, new or hybrid design. Ideas for the structure are provided by Documenting sightings: the logbook.
• Distrust rumors. Announcements like “the last aircraft in the old design” are not always right – sometimes a forgotten example turns up, for instance at subsidiaries or on a wet lease.
• Think about alliance and special liveries. Aircraft in alliance or advertising designs often follow their own schedules. Background is offered by Alliance liveries and Advertising liveries.
• Stay on public ground. Even for a rare remaining aircraft, the rule applies: photograph only from permitted spots and paths.

Conclusion

A rebrand does not change a fleet overnight. Between the festive unveiling and the last repainted aircraft lies a transition period full of hybrids, exceptions and one-offs. If you document early, keep registrations cleanly separated and follow the remaining fleet on purpose, you end up with a collection that shows the airline’s history. And sometimes the old design comes back as a retro livery. How to organize your special liveries overall is explained in Collecting and documenting special liveries.