Monkeyboi From United Kingdom, joined Oct 2004, 457 posts, RR: 3 Posted (8 years 3 months 2 days 3 hours ago) and read 4130 times:
The old British Midland re-branded itself as bmi over two years ago. I always notice when at work at Heathrow though that only a minority of their fleet have been painted in the new colours. My friend at bmi told me that the only aircraft in the new colours have been ones delivered after the re-brand. There is still not a single A321 painted in the new livery! Also, the new uniforms for staff never materialized.
I know sometimes airlines with huge fleets take ages to completely re-paint their fleets (You still see a few BA 'world tails' about) but with a fleet of 30-ish aircraft surely it isn't too much of a task for bmi.
Is it simply that they are strapped for cash? Or is this normal in the airline industry?
Ntspelich From United States of America, joined Aug 2003, 764 posts, RR: 0 Reply 1, posted (8 years 3 months 2 days 2 hours ago) and read 4062 times:
Even if an airline isn't strapped for cash, repainting all of their a/c is a long process, mainly because the work is done when the a/c go in for their D checks. It makes the most sense to do it then since the paint is stripped from the body as part of the mx work. So, it depends what schedule BD has their a/c on for heavy mx.
That's just my take on it. There may be other circumstances going on, but I'm not all that well informed on the UK aviation industry.
NTS
[Edited 2005-02-23 18:58:55]
United 717 heavy, you're facing the wrong way. Any chance you can powerback to get off of my deice pad?
FlyCaledonian From United Kingdom, joined Dec 2003, 1965 posts, RR: 3 Reply 2, posted (8 years 3 months 2 days 2 hours ago) and read 3988 times:
The A321s were delivered only a few years ago, but before the rebranding, so have not required repainting yet. Simply repainting them when that's not necessary is an unwanted expense. The same applies to the Embraer ERJ-145s.
As for long rebrands, BA franchise carrier Loganair still flies an ex-BA CitiExpress BAe ATP in the Landor colours, nearly 8 years since BA launched its Speedmarque and Utopia colour scheme!
NCLairport From United Kingdom, joined Feb 2005, 240 posts, RR: 2 Reply 4, posted (8 years 3 months 2 days 1 hour ago) and read 3881 times:
MYTravel seemed to take forever to get themselves into new colours with the A330's flying about looking boring for years! Its only this year, at least 4 years since the re branding that they have finally been painted.
COEWRNJ From United States of America, joined Oct 2003, 1061 posts, RR: 21 Reply 5, posted (8 years 3 months 2 days 1 hour ago) and read 3861 times:
I'm going to go with DL. They have four different color schemes out presently. They still have the old school widget scheme and then the current flag scheme with the triangular widget. The old school widget has been around as long as I can remember.
ThomasCook From United Kingdom, joined Aug 2004, 725 posts, RR: 9 Reply 7, posted (8 years 3 months 2 days ago) and read 3747 times:
Hi,
NCLairport
MyTravel Group only rebranded in November 2001 and I would say it was near to complete in October 2004 if not April of this year when the final A330s receive full livery.
----
As for BY, if they could only decide on their focus and future name, I'm sure the process would not still be ongoing or if it was, it would maybe be close to completion now! They currently have 5 different liveries in active service, those being: Britannia, TUI Britannia, Thomson, Thomsonfly and eurowhite. I'm not getting at them here, but I just don't understand why they would phase one name and then another within months of eachother?
DeltAirlines From United States of America, joined May 1999, 8771 posts, RR: 13 Reply 8, posted (8 years 3 months 2 days ago) and read 3708 times:
COEWRNJ - the widget is gone now...it might be on one or two Connection planes, but it is gone from mainline, ASA, Chautauqua (maybe 1 on Comair, maybe a couple at SkyWest).
That leaves only 2 liveries left, and the Landor ones are going away faster and faster (each time I go through ATL, it seems like there are more Deltaflot planes)...I'm not counting the new widget as a livery change...it's so small that I'm sure most passengers fail to even notice it.
Jmc757 From United Kingdom, joined Mar 2000, 1296 posts, RR: 8 Reply 9, posted (8 years 3 months 1 day 22 hours ago) and read 3596 times:
Its all to do with cost. Why repaint an aircraft if it doesn't actually need painting? Sure its good for brand continuity, but it costs. Not only the cost of the paint, but downtime of the aircraft. Aircraft get painted on their D checks anyway, so you might as well wait. Especially in todays climate, where cost efficiency is essential.
A321fly From United Kingdom, joined Aug 2005, 59 posts, RR: 0 Reply 10, posted (8 years 3 months 1 day 22 hours ago) and read 3579 times:
Quoting Jmc757 (reply 9): Its all to do with cost. Why repaint an aircraft if it doesn't actually need painting? Sure its good for brand continuity, but it costs. Not only the cost of the paint, but downtime of the aircraft. Aircraft get painted on their D checks anyway, so you might as well wait. Especially in todays climate, where cost efficiency is essential.
Well Said.
I dont think bmi should rush into anything, at least they didnt ruin the changeover with stickers like My Travel did/have. I can stand the Airtours i can stand the My Travel i cannot stand the horrible in between livery.
DC10Tim From United Kingdom, joined Jan 2005, 1405 posts, RR: 16 Reply 13, posted (8 years 3 months 1 day 20 hours ago) and read 3422 times:
I think some of the A321s might be going soon in favour of 319s. This is perhaps why they haven't been repainted.
They seem to have been a bit of a misfit in the fleet. I remember seeing one of the first ones just after it had landed on its delivery flight, about 6 years ago at EMA. Immediately after 9/11 several of them were put into storage at EMA, if it wasn't before.
WhiteHatter From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 14, posted (8 years 3 months 1 day 19 hours ago) and read 3368 times:
Quoting DC10Tim (reply 13): I think some of the A321s might be going soon in favour of 319s. This is perhaps why they haven't been repainted.
Bull.
The A321s are going nowhere, they work hard on shuttles and fly full. BMI also subcharter them out to tour operators, Air 2000 was a notable lease a couple of years ago taking an A321 on an ACMI deal.
They haven't been repainted because BMI have got better things to do with their money than make planes look pretty for spotters. When they get due for heavy checks, they will be repainted. Not before.
FlyingColours From United Kingdom, joined Dec 2003, 2315 posts, RR: 11 Reply 15, posted (8 years 3 months 1 day 11 hours ago) and read 3181 times:
Don't forget that those My Travel aircraft along with pretty much all of those charter aircraft spend a lot of time in the air in comparison to it's BD counterparts so they could do very little during a nightstop. The My Travel stickers went on because as with all the UK Charters changing their name they want to do it quickly, unfortunatly they didn't do it like First Choice/ Air 2000 and paint the aircraft first then stick the new name on after a few months.
Airlines do have much better things to spend money on, true however trying to keep a good corperate image is important too, still at least the BD/BMI hybrid looks fine.
Phil
FlyingColours
Lifes a train racing towards you, now you can either run away or grab a chair & a beer and watch it come - Phil
BA380 From United Kingdom, joined May 2004, 1466 posts, RR: 9 Reply 17, posted (8 years 3 months 1 day 9 hours ago) and read 3080 times:
i understand the logic in waiting until the D check to paint, but it is getting a little silly now. I remember being in the bmi lounge in Jan 2001 in CDG the day they unveiled the new identity. There was a model of a plane in the new look and champagne and canapes. And yet over 4 years later, many/most bmi planes are not repainted (or rather, have that nasty looking interim clusterf*** effort). It all seems a little cheap. Get on with it lads.
btw, amazed no-one has mentioned Eurowhite yet in this thread!
Wheelsatc From United Kingdom, joined Oct 2004, 111 posts, RR: 0 Reply 18, posted (8 years 3 months 1 day 8 hours ago) and read 3003 times:
Contrary to what Whitehatter has said some A321's will be leaving the fleet with the first in May, it has been mentioned on previous threads. All the A321's are leased and will eventually be replaced hence them not being repainted.
RedDragon From United Kingdom, joined Jul 2004, 1135 posts, RR: 7 Reply 20, posted (8 years 3 months 1 day 2 hours ago) and read 1831 times:
Quoting BA380 (reply 17): btw, amazed no-one has mentioned Eurowhite yet in this thread!
Quoting ThomasCook (reply 7): [Britannia] currently have 5 different liveries in active service, those being: Britannia, TUI Britannia, Thomson, Thomsonfly and eurowhite.
BestWestern From Ireland, joined Sep 2000, 6439 posts, RR: 58 Reply 22, posted (8 years 3 months 1 day 2 hours ago) and read 1780 times:
Quoting Wheelsatc (reply 18): Contrary to what Whitehatter has said some A321's will be leaving the fleet with the first in May, it has been mentioned on previous threads. All the A321's are leased and will eventually be replaced hence them not being repainted.
I've heard this also... To be replaced with 320's and 319's - smaller aircraft will allow BD to increase frequencies on core routes again. I understand that this may result in a UK domestic route being cut.
321's are being kept for BHD, DUB, and one aircraft flying a mixed schedule to EDI and GLA.
Sabena 690 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 24, posted (8 years 3 months 1 day 1 hour ago) and read 1686 times:
The 2 A321's that will be returned are G-MIDA and G-MIDF.
@DC10Tim: do they have 5 A319's on order? I thought that only 2 were due...
Frederic
25 DC10Tim: Sabena690, I'm confused now. According to this years INTAG book, BMI will receive A319s up to the reg. no. G-DBCI, hence another 5 on order. However,
26 A340600: I have had a model of a BMI 321 in the full colours since about 2002, snapfit, but i'm pretty used to it. Is there anyone else, like me, who actually
27 Foxy: I think the Hybrid A321's look nice I also seem to be the only person around here who thinks the hybrid MYT scheme is actually nice than the full MYT
Sponsor Message: 
From United Kingdom, joined Oct 2004, 457 posts, 
From United States of America, joined Aug 2003, 764 posts, 
From Ireland, joined Jul 2004, 573 posts, 
From , joined Dec 1969, posts, 
Printer friendly format 
