United Airlines unveiled its new livery on a Boeing 737NG airliner. It's United's first new paint scheme since the company merged with Continental Airlines in 2012. United's livery is an evolution of the old Continental paint design. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. United Airlines unveiled its brand-new livery on Wednesday. It's United's first new paint scheme since the company merged with Continental Airlines in 2012. "As we improve and elevate our customer experience, we are changing the way people think and feel about United, and this branding captures that new spirit," United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz said in a statement. "This modernized design, especially our iconic globe, enhances the very best of United's image and values while pointing in the direction of where we intend to go next in serving our customers." United presented its new livery on a freshly painted Boeing 737NG airliner. Read more: An American Airlines VP reveals why the Airbus A380 doesn't work for the world's biggest airline. The current United livery is based on Continental's old blue and gray paint scheme, complete with a blue and gold globe on the tail. That design has been around for nearly three decades. United's new livery is more evolutionary than revolutionary. It's actually the next iteration of the current paint scheme. United Airlines The biggest change will the more prominently displayed "UNITED" wordmark along the side of the plane. The globe on the tail has been redesigned to feature three different shades for blue — rhapsody blue, United blue, and sky blue. "The next iteration of United's livery prominently features the color most connected to the airline's core – blue. Three shades – Rhapsody Blue, United Blue, and Sky Blue – are used throughout the design in a way that pays respect to United's heritage while bringing a more modern energy," United said in a statement. "The airline is keeping its iconic globe logo on the aircraft tail, which represents the carrier's expansive route network of reaching 355 destinations in nearly 60 countries."<doc-sep>In teasing that a United Airlines new paint scheme was coming, CEO Oscar Munoz recently called it more of an evolution than a revolution. He wasn’t joking. United released a video of the scheme on Tuesday, and it borrows heavily from the old Continental Airlines livery, first introduced in 1991. United took the look after its 2010 merger with Continental in something of a compromise. United kept the name and the Chicago headquarters, and Continental got the logo (a stylized globe) and the paint. The airline is planning a big unveiling Wednesday at a hangar at Chicago O’Hare International Airport. But after a photograph of a newly painted Boeing 737 surfaced Tuesday night on message boards and on Twitter, United made it official, releasing a video. Our next livery has been cleared for takeoff. Stay tuned right here for more from our celebration in Chicago tomorrow! pic.twitter.com/n4CJrAJERG — United Airlines (@united) April 24, 2019 The United Look Important for United, the globe will stay, painted prominently on the aircraft’s tail, though its color will change. Several years ago, the airline stopped using gold, an old Continental color, in much of its branding. For this livery update, United is removing gold from the tail, replacing it with a stylized blue logo, with light and dark shades. In another change, the airline is painting its name in blue lettering in much larger letters across the aircraft’s fuselage. It will paint its engines, now gray, in blue. United is also adding a dark wavy line, below the windows, from the aircraft’s nose to its tail. United introduced a similar line in 2012, in gold, on its Boeing 787s. United has put that gold line on all of its 787s and Boeing 737 Max 9s but never added it to other aircraft. Longtime United observers noted on social media and message boards that the new livery shares some similarities with the paint job United used just before its merger. United used a lot of blue in that look, including blue engines. It generally takes airlines five or more years to paint their fleets, so it will be a long time before the old Continental design disappears. Some customers wanted United to go with a clean rebranding, arguing the airline needed to move past a logo designed a quarter century ago by another company. But United chose a more minor update, similar to what Alaska Airlines did in 2016, after it acquired Virgin America. In a press release, Alaska’s vice president for marketing even used the same “evolution, not a revolution,” phrase. It’s not easy to start from scratch. United flies to hundreds of airports worldwide, and had the airline started anew, all of them would have had to change signage. In addition, brand marks on the airplane would have to change, as would just about everything used by the airline’s catering department, from cups to napkins. Airlines generally save full rebranding for when they want customers to think of them differently. American Airlines did a full rebrand in 2013 as it was emerging from bankruptcy. Frontier Airlines changed its look in 2014, after new ownership changed its model and it became an ultra-low-cost carrier. Sometimes, though, an airline starts over when it’s probably not required. In 2014, Southwest unveiled new branding and paint. The airline calls its look “Heart.” Here is an infographic from United detailing some of the changes. Download (PDF, 4.36MB)<doc-sep>Saying it was time to reach a new generation of fliers, United officially debuted a new airplane livery in Chicago that drops the use of gold in favor of three shades of blue. The carrier held a big "brand celebration" at an airport hangar at O'Hare International to unveil the revised look on one freshly painted airplane. Under the cloak of darkness, the Boeing 737 flew in from a paint shop in Amarillo, Texas, and was tucked away in an airport hangar so the surprise would not be spoiled. But, photos of the new plane started making the rounds on social media ahead of its planned public reveal, giving the internet a peek at the revised paint job. United later released a video of the new look, confirming the photo. Airline CEO Oscar Munoz, in his remarks to the audience, jokingly alluded to the new livery making the rounds on social media. See photos in the slideshow at the top of this post. The new look is not a drastic change from the current one- as Munoz previously stated, it's an "evolution, not a revolution." In some ways it's similar to an airline livery that first debuted with Continental Airlines back in 1991. That's right — the current United livery is almost three decades old! "It was time to make sure the exterior of the aircraft matched the design system of the rest of the airline," said Mark Krolick, United's Vice President of Marketing. "We were excited to modernize the look of the aircraft and bring the globe iconography and other pieces of the graphic identity into the future." Krolick said that all mainline and regional jets will sport the new livery-- but that the process of painting United's enormous fleet of nearly 800 planes will take 5-7 years. All new jets delivered from the factory will sport the new livery. United says that on average, its planes receive new paint jobs every seven years. Don't miss: One-on-one in SF with United's COO Scott Kirby Long gone is United's familiar old Tulip — the popular red and blue logo that was synonymous with the airline until its merger with Continental in 2010. In the merger, the combined carrier kept the United name believing it had better global brand recognition, but went with the Continental livery and logo. In this new look, the gold line that stretched nose-to-tail becomes a dark blue "swooping" cheat line that its Boeing 787 Dreamliner and 737 MAX fleets currently wear. United Along the sides of the fuselage, the "United" wordmark is much larger and more prominent with the lettering now extending over the windows. There were clear indications this would be a part of the new livery when the airline unveiled a Star Wars-themed jet that featured larger titles last week. American, Alaska and Southwest made a similar move to larger letters when those carriers came up with their most recent liveries. The color of the United engines is changing from a grey to blue — perhaps a nod to the mid-2000s United "Rising Blue" scheme. The tail of United jets now features a "simplified" globe logo that, again, replaces the gold coloring with a shade of light blue. The motto "Connecting People. Uniting the World." will be a part of the new look and will appear in small letters along the fuselage on all jets that wear these new colors. The winglets on planes that have them will be a solid blue color, and the belly of the airplanes will remain "runway gray." What do you think about United's new look? Vote in our poll! United has been expanding its color palate in the past year, incorporating different hues of blue and purple to give its brand more pizazz. Many of the new colors were incorporated in the new uniforms that debuted publicly last year. (More about that here.) "Design and sensory branding impacts the overall experience for our customers," Krolick said. "So making sure that we had a design system for not just the aircraft but the uniforms, aircraft interiors and airports that really felt fresh, modern and very forward looking." So readers, what do you think of United's new look? Please leave your thoughts in the comments! (Disclosure: United Airlines covered the cost of air transportation to and from the brand reveal event in Chicago.) Read all recent TravelSkills posts here Get twice-per-week updates from TravelSkills via email! Sign up here Chris McGinnis is the founder of TravelSkills.com. The author is solely responsible for the content above, and it is used here by permission. You can reach Chris at chris@travelskills.com or on Twitter @cjmcginnis.<doc-sep>
United Airlines' new livery is finally ready to hit the skies − though not everyone on Twitter thought the airline stuck the landing. United released a video late Tuesday night of its new branding ahead of a celebration in Chicago on Wednesday. The airline had been teasing the makeover on social media for the last week. "Our next livery has been cleared for takeoff," the airline wrote in a tweet. "Stay tuned right here for more from our celebration in Chicago tomorrow!" The new livery heavily features the airline's signature blue color in three different shades, according to a statement. It will keep the globe logo on the aircraft tail but it will be tweaked with a gradient in these blue shades. Other parts of the aircraft will also incorporate a mix of the three colors. United had updated its "brand palette" last year with these and other new colors. It's limiting its use of gold. Every aircraft will also have United's mission painted near its door: "Connecting people. Uniting the world." The first aircraft to get a new paint job is a Boeing 737-800. More:First look: United unveils new uniforms for 70,000 frontline employees The update mirrors a sweeping uniform change the airline announced earlier this year. Earlier in the day, not everyone on social media was celebrating the update. One Twitter user wasn't impressed, channeling the character Jim Halpert from "The Office." "I didn't like it; the old (continental style) livery was very nice with the blue and gold colors," a fellow user wrote. "This has just become boring and the blue is too much in your face." United merged with Continental Airlines back in 2010. Not everyone was unhappy with United's new look, however: "Finally a livery, which is better than the old one. Congrats @united," a user wrote. "Personally, I like it!" another said. People also engaged in a discussion about the importance of livery and marketing around it. "Unless the color of the plane is going to affect whether or not you book a flight with the carrier, what is the point of quite so much armchair quarterbacking of the new @united livery?" a user asked. Another replied: "A better question would be 'why has @united done so much hyping of its new livery?' Branding is important, and really does affect whether people buy tickets. It communicates what customers might expect from the airline in return for their money." Check back for photos from United's new livery showcase later on Wednesday.