Hello all , i was thinking today about how us airways still has delivery's to take from airbus and i was curious with the merger of Us Airways and American would it be smart to deliver the rest of the fleet in a modified version of the New American livery , by this i mean simular to what Piedmont did with some of there last boeing delivery's they got before the US air piedmont merger by having the whole paint job in Us Air's Livery but with the name piedmont on the titles area (ill put a example below) , could they do the same on us airways aircraft by having the whole american livery with us airways titles? it would save them having to do a total re paint wouldn't it?
Tell me what you all think
Piedmont727

[Edited 2013-06-08 17:47:31]

Not a bad idea, but my guess is that until they are officially merged (per the US government giving it's approval), they will still be delivered as US Airways planes in full livery.

Once the merger is official, they'll be painted in full AA colors.

But we can still hope that the AA livery changes sometime during that whole process, right?

Merger closing is expected on Aug 31. Expect an aggressive rebranding of USAirways into AA in Sept. All US deliveries scheduled in or after sept will be delivered in AA branding . Whichever branding that is remains to be seen.

Somewhat irrelevant, but you've got the wrong USAir livery there. This is the USAIr livery a partial version of which those Piedmont aircraft were delivered in:

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Photo © Frank C. Duarte Jr.


Note the shaded cheatline that is the same in the Piedmont/USAir hybrid livery:

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Photo © Frank C. Duarte Jr.


This similar livery with a blue cheatline would also qualify as a Piedmont/USAir hybrid:

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Photo © Frank C. Duarte Jr.


That became the new interim Piedmont livery after the merger agreement, replacing this:

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Photo © Frank C. Duarte Jr.


But none of the hybrids were ever fully repainted in the USAir livery of which they wore a version; instead they got the titles from the new USAir livery:

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Photo © Frank C. Duarte Jr.


As did aircraft in the blue-cheatline version:

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Photo © Frank C. Duarte Jr.


And ones in full pre-merger Piedmont livery:

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Photo © Frank C. Duarte Jr.


And this is the livery USAir introduced in 1989 when the merger was completed:

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Photo © Frank C. Duarte Jr.


Of course now we have a kind of reverse hybrid with this  :

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Photo © Lyndon Thorley


Oh, and let's not forget AA has its own precedent with the sort of arrangement you're proposing here:

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Photo © Mark Abbott


That said, I'm not sure we'll be seeing aircraft in AA livery with US titles, or even (although it is not what you are proposing) US livery with AA titles. The DL/NW merger involved no hybrid liveries at all, and AA could decide to make the same decision. (UA/CO of course made the unconventional choice of just painting everything in a hybrid livery, but I seriously doubt we'll be seeing AA doing that.) I wouldn't be surprised if US aircraft just got repainted into/delivered in full AA livery with tiny "operated by US Airways" titles, as DL did with NW aircraft, while those that aren't repainted remain in full US colors until they're repainted or retired, eventually with "operated by American Airlines" titles after the airlines move to a single operating certificate, again like DL/NW. Though I certainly hope we see a USAir and/or US Airways heritage livery to go with the Allegheny, America West, Piedmont, and PSA ones (which hopefully will be sticking around)... Maybe even an AA 1968 livery "heritage" livery, which could be accomplished by simply failing to repaint a 737.  

Quoting BOACCunard (Reply 3): Maybe even an AA 1968 livery "heritage" livery, which could be accomplished by simply failing to repaint a 737.

Or two if the Astrojet livery is still around. And perhaps even a US A319 (heritage of the new AA)

There is one good question that arises from this: what will happen to the heritage A319s? Will DP keep them around even though the airline will be American? or will they slowly fade into memory?

Quoting einsteinboricua (Reply 4):

Better yet, paint all the Current US heritage liveries on AA's 737's as that's what they were on when they were in use. Paint the Dark Blue and current US livery on both 737NG's and A32x. And then you would have AA's own heritage livery and you have a nice balanced fleet.

Quoting BOACCunard (Reply 3): Oh, and let's not forget AA has its own precedent with the sort of arrangement you're proposing here:

As did Republic -- shortly before their merger with NW, we had this:


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Photo © Trevor Ogle


Interestingly, those planes never made it into full NW livery. To keep commonality with the rest of their PW-powered 757 fleet, the Republic examples were disposed of and some of them ended up with HP/US.

Quoting KGRB (Reply 6): Interestingly, those planes never made it into full NW livery. To keep commonality with the rest of their PW-powered 757 fleet, the Republic examples were disposed of and some of them ended up with HP/US.

All six RC 757 went to HP.

Quoting KGRB (Reply 6): As did Republic -- shortly before their merger with NW, we had this:

Indeed, I was just focusing on US and AA.

Quoting KGRB (Reply 6): Interestingly, those planes never made it into full NW livery. To

Same with AA/TW hybrid 717s:

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Photo © Bevin Shively


Nice looking airplanes, pity they didn't stick around.

Quoting BOACCunard (Reply 8): Nice looking airplanes, pity they didn't stick around.

And that aircraft is soon to be wearing DL colors. Quite the history!

For all intensive purposes, both airlines have no choice than to operate as completely separate entities until the date of the merger closing. For this reason, you will not see any US-owned aircraft painted with AA branding. The two companies can plan all they want regarding the integration, but they can't execute any of these plans until the merger closes.

And, as nobody has indicated above, the use of a modified US Air - Piedmont livery did not occur until AFTER US bought Piedmont, but before they integrated the two carriers.

Quoting KGRB (Reply 6): Interestingly, those planes never made it into full NW livery. To keep commonality with the rest of their PW-powered 757 fleet, the Republic examples were disposed of and some of them ended up with HP/US.

You're correct they were fairly quickly disposed of, but at least some made it into full NW livery, explaining the few shots of RR powered NW 757s...

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View Large View Medium Photo © Ellis M. Chernoff

I guess someone didn't believe me when I said that US aircraft would be painted after merger closing in sept or after sept so they decided to send the question into our internal communication news letter " About US" . I guess I stand correct but not really ..
Q. I recently read on airliners.net where someone said
he had a source that told him that all of the US aircraft deliveries that are arriving after the close of the merger in August will be delivered in the American Airlines brand. Could you confirm if this is true or if it is just imaginative thinking from either the poster or his “source?”
A. We checked with David Seymour, senior vice president, Operations, who told us: All of the remaining deliveries
for 2013 will be delivered in the current US livery and configuration. We can’t make any changes to our aircraft until after the merger closes.

As the merger is expected to close in August, switching to an AA base livery (even with US titles) in September is probably too soon given that paint, etc, will have been ordered. More than likely that once the merger is closed, a decision is taken on the final AA brand (DP may want tweaks - who knows), and any agreements are made with Airbus to change the delivery livery, then it's likely 2014 deliveries could arrive in an AA base livery (but with US titles).

Quoting N243NW (Reply 10): For all intensive purposes

Intents and purposes.