The
aircraft liveries and
country,
logos and
airlines are used to provide a distinctive
branding for corporates to support commercial gains. Often, symbols of national identity are also integrated to get accepted in an international market.[1] Liveries and logos are listed alphabetically by type of symbolism.
National flag, symbols, or elements of them
A
Aeroflot: Russian national flag, with traditional winged
hammer and sickle used on fuselage. New livery adopted in 2003.
Air Belgium: Belgium flag on tail and fuselage. On the tail, the logotype, a crowned AB, accompanies the flag.
Air Canada: Blue aircraft, with the name Air Canada and maple leaves on the front area of the fuselage, directly behind the
cockpit, and on the tail. In 2017, a new livery consisting of a white fuselage with a black underside, lettering and tail with red maple leaf logos on the engines, fuselage and tail was introduced. The new livery featured a black surrounding of the cockpit windows.
Air France: French flag, formed as several sliced parallel lines of varying widths.
Air India: The logo is a red flying swan with the wheel of the
Konark Sun Temple painted in orange on the swan's spread-out wing. The 2023 rebranding, dubbed "The Vista", featured golden window trim in reference to
jharokha, a stone window which is a common feature to classic
Indian architecture.[2]
Air Koryo: Features North Korean national colors on the livery and flag on the tail, as well as a crane.
American Airlines: Stylized American flag on the tail, with the upgraded eagle design near the front exit doors. New livery adopted in February 2013.
Austrian Airlines: Red-white-red tailfin with
chevron (symbolizing an airplane taking off) with drop shadow added. The recent revision of the logo removed the shadow.
Azul Brazilian Airlines: White aircraft with navy blue belly and tail. Several green and yellow stripes (resembling the colors of the Brazilian flag) are painted on the fuselage, tail, winglets and engines. The logo on the tail is shaped like the map of Brazil, with each of the Brazilian states being shown as different colored geometrical forms.[3]
B
Batik Air: The logo consisted of a wax pen named
canting inside of a letter "B" in the name. The livery is emblazoned in traditional Indonesian dyed-pattern cloth (
batik), which is also referenced in the airline's name.
Breeze Airways: A
checkmark on the aircraft's tail section on top of blue wave, referencing the airlines' logo.
British Airways: Britain's flag carrier shows a section of the British Union Flag on the aircraft tail. Some aircraft feature the Union Jack under the nose.
Cathay Dragon: Brush-stroke logo dubbed the "brush wing" represents a bird in flight through white Chinese calligraphy stroke on a red background, with a dragon from the Dragonair logo between the front door and the window cockpit.
Cathay Pacific: The brush-stroke logo dubbed the "brush wing" represents a bird in flight through white Chinese calligraphy stroke on a green background.
China Airlines: The pink plum blossom is the national flower of the Republic of China (
Taiwan).
EgyptAir: The airline's logo is
Horus, the
sky deity in ancient
Egyptian mythology, usually depicted as a
falcon or a man with the head of a falcon. The airline has taken
Horus as its logo because of the ancient symbolism as a "winged god of the sun".
Garuda Indonesia: The logo is a stylized mythical Hindu deity
Garuda in shades of blue, which also incorporated in Indonesia's state insignia.
I
Iberia: An aircraft tailfin shape from a yellow piece and red piece (the Spanish flag colors) and a Royal yellow crown next to the registration number. Formerly a stylized IB in yellow and red with a crown.
Iberojet (airline) (formerly Evelop Airlines): A dark blue "o" in a white circle. Formerly, as Evelop, the "o" was an exclamation mark "!".
ITA Airways: The tailfin has a vertical green, white, and red stripe, derived from the Italian flag colors. The fuselage is in
Savoy blue, the color of the former Italian royal family.
K
Kenya Airways: In 2005, Kenya Airways changed its livery. The four stripes running all through the length of the fuselage were replaced by the company slogan "Pride of Africa", whereas the KA tail logo was replaced by a styled K encircled with a Q to evoke the airline's IATA airline code.
KLM: Stylized crown representing royal charter status.
Korean Air:
Taegeuk, the national symbol of South Korea. Light blue all over the upper half of the aircraft, with a thick silver line separating it from the white lower half.
L
LATAM Airlines: A stylized
South American continent consisted of 4 lines, with 2 top lines folded inward. The logo applies to the group's associated airlines after the merger between
TAM and
LAN. As LAN Airlines, the livery consisted of a five-point star over a blue background with a red line below representing the color elements which is the national flag of
Chile. The white and red colors also representing the flag colors of
Peru and the associated nation's flag carrier -
LAN Perú (later known as
LATAM Perú).
Loganair: A
tartan pattern of
kilt (the national garment of
Scotland) featured in the vertical stabilizer.
Luxair: The Luxembourg flag and the logo of the airline is on display on the back of the plane.
M
Malev Hungarian Airlines: Hungarian flag shaped as a tail wing made of 3 lines with the national colors (red white green).
Middle East Airlines: A
cedar tree, which is the national emblem of
Lebanon, over the white tail and with two red bands rolling from the aircraft nose to tail.
N
Nepal Airlines: Nepalese flag shaped as a tail wing made of sun and moon with the national colors (red and blue).
Nordic Regional Airlines: The logo is a logotype "Norra" in caps with a smaller "O" like a
degree symbol. The livery featured a portion of the small "O" on the vertical stabilizer.
P
Pakistan International Airlines: the Pakistan flag in a wavy design takes up the whole tail in dark green colors with a white crescent moon and star.
Philippine Air Lines: white livery with the company logo, a heavily stylized version of the Philippine flag (blue triangle with eight-ray sun and red triangle of the same size superimposed on it), on the tail, and "Philippines" on the fuselage near the main cabin.
Porter Airlines: Diagonal lines featured the airlines' name "porter" on top of blue wave in vertical stabilizer.
R
Rossiya Airlines: The logo is a stylized letter "R", referencing to airlines' name.
Royal Air Maroc: Green Sharifian star in the tail, with two parallel lines in national colors (green and red).
Royal Brunei Airlines: Yellow tail with logotype "RB" and the Brunei national emblem at above.
Royal Jordanian: Royal Hashemite Crown of the Jordanian Monarchy.
Scandinavian Airlines: The logotype of the abbreviation of airlines' full name on top of light beige fuselage and blue tail section, with "Scandinavian" on the engines and the underbelly of the plane.
TAP Air Portugal: colors of the Portuguese flag in the "TAP" logo on the tail and fuselage.
T'way Air:
Apostrophe mark (referencing to airline's name) on top of red wave in vertical stabilizer.
U
United Airlines: Upon its 2010 merger with
Continental Airlines, a globe, indicative of the wide-ranging destinations available. 1974–2010 logo: Blue and red colored stripes forming an overlapping "U" for "United". Nicknamed the Tulip.
US Airways: The flag of the United States is incorporated into the US Airways logo and painted on the tail.
Uzbekistan Airways: The national flag of Uzbekistan is painted on the tail.
Vistara: An 8-point star with each end forming a "V" from the airline's name, derived from a
Yantra, an ancient symbol that depicts an unbounded universe in a perfect mathematical form.
W
WestJet: The mountain graphic of the logo depicted the
Canadian Rockies mountain range. The logo was later expanded with the mountain graphic encompassed inside a frame shaped like a
maple leaf.
Animals
Birds
A
Aegean Airlines: The airline's first logo was two
seagulls and a sun. The new logo featured two seagulls formed into a bigger seagull, representing the spirit of Greece and the airline's values. The new logo was inspired by Greek sky and seas, historical architecture and the country's design heritage.[5]
Japan Airlines: The tsurumaru or "crane circle", a Japanese
red-crowned crane with its wings extended in full flight. An arc of the
Hinomaru, the national flag, was used from 2008 to 2011.
Canadian North: The first logo was a
polar bear on top of the midnight sun and
Northern Lights on the side. After the merger with
First Air, Canadian North used the silhouette of an
Inuit from the latter's last livery as the new logo.
Delta Air Lines: Resembles the swept wing appearance of a jet flying overhead. Represents the capital letter "D" of the Greek alphabet, which is delta ∆. On the reverse side, it points northwest due to the merger with
Northwest Airlines.
E
Envoy Air: The logotype "envoy" with a red triangle on the letter "y".
EVA Air: Dark green background with a global logo in orange and green (modified version of the
Evergreen Group logo).
Northwest Airlines: Compass rose pointing northwest (on the port side – the compass points northeast on the starboard side). This up-and-forward-pointing design influenced
Delta Air Lines' current livery.
JetBlue: White and shades of
blue, depending on the tail logo.
P
Peach Aviation: Airline's name on vertical stabilizer on top of pink and purple wave.
S
Scoot: The logo was "Scoot" on a yellow circle with the tilted "t" outside. The livery consisted of the airline's website in the fuselage and airline's name on the vertical stabilizer, on top of an orange wave.
Solaseed Air: The logo is a 3D green fluid with 2 dots, indicating a smile.
Spirit Airlines: Bright yellow, "sketch-like" black letters on body and tail, "Home of the Bare Fare®" on engines.
StarFlyer: Pitched black livery with white wave in the bottom on the fuselage, with opposite coloring on both side of the vertical stabilizer and wingtip.
Srilankan Airlines: 'Monara' from the mythical Dandumonara Yanthra (a flying machine that resembles a peacock).
V
Varig: Varig's first logo was an image of
Icaro and its wings. After the adoption of the "star" (in fact it was a stylished compass) the Icaro figure was maintained on the fuselage of the airplanes, near the front door.
British Airways introduced unusual tailfin designs in 1997. These airline liveries and logos were intended to make the airline's branding more cosmopolitan and were described as "arty" and "ethnic". They were unpopular with many customers and also caused confusion for ground controllers who had more difficulty recognising aircraft with the
British Airways ethnic liveries to give clear taxiing instructions. Despite the £60 million expense of this livery, it was replaced completely in 2001 and the airline has now returned to a more traditional design based upon the
Union flag.[9]
Brussels Airlines' first logo was a stylised letter
B composed of 13 dots resembling a
runway. This was thought to be unlucky, and protests by
superstitious passengers caused the airline to add another dot.[10] Later in 2021, they changed the airline logo and livery, which consisted of dots in various sizes in the logo and colors in the livery.[11]
Japan Airlines' low cost, long haul subsidiary
Zipair Tokyo changed the livery with geometric design on the vertical stabilizer instead of the letter "Z" on the name, while the line on windows and the "Zipair" name still kept. The reason for the change is to avoid misunderstandings, as the letter has been used as a
military symbol by the
Russian Armed Forces during
Russia's invasion of Ukraine.[12]
Vietnam Airlines' low cost subsidiary
Pacific Airlines introduced a new logo after the split from the
Jetstar brand, which consisted of 3 tailfins stacked each other in an asymmetric hexagon shape. The livery featured a portion of the logo on the tail section.
The
aircraft liveries and
country,
logos and
airlines are used to provide a distinctive
branding for corporates to support commercial gains. Often, symbols of national identity are also integrated to get accepted in an international market.[1] Liveries and logos are listed alphabetically by type of symbolism.
National flag, symbols, or elements of them
A
Aeroflot: Russian national flag, with traditional winged
hammer and sickle used on fuselage. New livery adopted in 2003.
Air Belgium: Belgium flag on tail and fuselage. On the tail, the logotype, a crowned AB, accompanies the flag.
Air Canada: Blue aircraft, with the name Air Canada and maple leaves on the front area of the fuselage, directly behind the
cockpit, and on the tail. In 2017, a new livery consisting of a white fuselage with a black underside, lettering and tail with red maple leaf logos on the engines, fuselage and tail was introduced. The new livery featured a black surrounding of the cockpit windows.
Air France: French flag, formed as several sliced parallel lines of varying widths.
Air India: The logo is a red flying swan with the wheel of the
Konark Sun Temple painted in orange on the swan's spread-out wing. The 2023 rebranding, dubbed "The Vista", featured golden window trim in reference to
jharokha, a stone window which is a common feature to classic
Indian architecture.[2]
Air Koryo: Features North Korean national colors on the livery and flag on the tail, as well as a crane.
American Airlines: Stylized American flag on the tail, with the upgraded eagle design near the front exit doors. New livery adopted in February 2013.
Austrian Airlines: Red-white-red tailfin with
chevron (symbolizing an airplane taking off) with drop shadow added. The recent revision of the logo removed the shadow.
Azul Brazilian Airlines: White aircraft with navy blue belly and tail. Several green and yellow stripes (resembling the colors of the Brazilian flag) are painted on the fuselage, tail, winglets and engines. The logo on the tail is shaped like the map of Brazil, with each of the Brazilian states being shown as different colored geometrical forms.[3]
B
Batik Air: The logo consisted of a wax pen named
canting inside of a letter "B" in the name. The livery is emblazoned in traditional Indonesian dyed-pattern cloth (
batik), which is also referenced in the airline's name.
Breeze Airways: A
checkmark on the aircraft's tail section on top of blue wave, referencing the airlines' logo.
British Airways: Britain's flag carrier shows a section of the British Union Flag on the aircraft tail. Some aircraft feature the Union Jack under the nose.
Cathay Dragon: Brush-stroke logo dubbed the "brush wing" represents a bird in flight through white Chinese calligraphy stroke on a red background, with a dragon from the Dragonair logo between the front door and the window cockpit.
Cathay Pacific: The brush-stroke logo dubbed the "brush wing" represents a bird in flight through white Chinese calligraphy stroke on a green background.
China Airlines: The pink plum blossom is the national flower of the Republic of China (
Taiwan).
EgyptAir: The airline's logo is
Horus, the
sky deity in ancient
Egyptian mythology, usually depicted as a
falcon or a man with the head of a falcon. The airline has taken
Horus as its logo because of the ancient symbolism as a "winged god of the sun".
Garuda Indonesia: The logo is a stylized mythical Hindu deity
Garuda in shades of blue, which also incorporated in Indonesia's state insignia.
I
Iberia: An aircraft tailfin shape from a yellow piece and red piece (the Spanish flag colors) and a Royal yellow crown next to the registration number. Formerly a stylized IB in yellow and red with a crown.
Iberojet (airline) (formerly Evelop Airlines): A dark blue "o" in a white circle. Formerly, as Evelop, the "o" was an exclamation mark "!".
ITA Airways: The tailfin has a vertical green, white, and red stripe, derived from the Italian flag colors. The fuselage is in
Savoy blue, the color of the former Italian royal family.
K
Kenya Airways: In 2005, Kenya Airways changed its livery. The four stripes running all through the length of the fuselage were replaced by the company slogan "Pride of Africa", whereas the KA tail logo was replaced by a styled K encircled with a Q to evoke the airline's IATA airline code.
KLM: Stylized crown representing royal charter status.
Korean Air:
Taegeuk, the national symbol of South Korea. Light blue all over the upper half of the aircraft, with a thick silver line separating it from the white lower half.
L
LATAM Airlines: A stylized
South American continent consisted of 4 lines, with 2 top lines folded inward. The logo applies to the group's associated airlines after the merger between
TAM and
LAN. As LAN Airlines, the livery consisted of a five-point star over a blue background with a red line below representing the color elements which is the national flag of
Chile. The white and red colors also representing the flag colors of
Peru and the associated nation's flag carrier -
LAN Perú (later known as
LATAM Perú).
Loganair: A
tartan pattern of
kilt (the national garment of
Scotland) featured in the vertical stabilizer.
Luxair: The Luxembourg flag and the logo of the airline is on display on the back of the plane.
M
Malev Hungarian Airlines: Hungarian flag shaped as a tail wing made of 3 lines with the national colors (red white green).
Middle East Airlines: A
cedar tree, which is the national emblem of
Lebanon, over the white tail and with two red bands rolling from the aircraft nose to tail.
N
Nepal Airlines: Nepalese flag shaped as a tail wing made of sun and moon with the national colors (red and blue).
Nordic Regional Airlines: The logo is a logotype "Norra" in caps with a smaller "O" like a
degree symbol. The livery featured a portion of the small "O" on the vertical stabilizer.
P
Pakistan International Airlines: the Pakistan flag in a wavy design takes up the whole tail in dark green colors with a white crescent moon and star.
Philippine Air Lines: white livery with the company logo, a heavily stylized version of the Philippine flag (blue triangle with eight-ray sun and red triangle of the same size superimposed on it), on the tail, and "Philippines" on the fuselage near the main cabin.
Porter Airlines: Diagonal lines featured the airlines' name "porter" on top of blue wave in vertical stabilizer.
R
Rossiya Airlines: The logo is a stylized letter "R", referencing to airlines' name.
Royal Air Maroc: Green Sharifian star in the tail, with two parallel lines in national colors (green and red).
Royal Brunei Airlines: Yellow tail with logotype "RB" and the Brunei national emblem at above.
Royal Jordanian: Royal Hashemite Crown of the Jordanian Monarchy.
Scandinavian Airlines: The logotype of the abbreviation of airlines' full name on top of light beige fuselage and blue tail section, with "Scandinavian" on the engines and the underbelly of the plane.
TAP Air Portugal: colors of the Portuguese flag in the "TAP" logo on the tail and fuselage.
T'way Air:
Apostrophe mark (referencing to airline's name) on top of red wave in vertical stabilizer.
U
United Airlines: Upon its 2010 merger with
Continental Airlines, a globe, indicative of the wide-ranging destinations available. 1974–2010 logo: Blue and red colored stripes forming an overlapping "U" for "United". Nicknamed the Tulip.
US Airways: The flag of the United States is incorporated into the US Airways logo and painted on the tail.
Uzbekistan Airways: The national flag of Uzbekistan is painted on the tail.
Vistara: An 8-point star with each end forming a "V" from the airline's name, derived from a
Yantra, an ancient symbol that depicts an unbounded universe in a perfect mathematical form.
W
WestJet: The mountain graphic of the logo depicted the
Canadian Rockies mountain range. The logo was later expanded with the mountain graphic encompassed inside a frame shaped like a
maple leaf.
Animals
Birds
A
Aegean Airlines: The airline's first logo was two
seagulls and a sun. The new logo featured two seagulls formed into a bigger seagull, representing the spirit of Greece and the airline's values. The new logo was inspired by Greek sky and seas, historical architecture and the country's design heritage.[5]
Japan Airlines: The tsurumaru or "crane circle", a Japanese
red-crowned crane with its wings extended in full flight. An arc of the
Hinomaru, the national flag, was used from 2008 to 2011.
Canadian North: The first logo was a
polar bear on top of the midnight sun and
Northern Lights on the side. After the merger with
First Air, Canadian North used the silhouette of an
Inuit from the latter's last livery as the new logo.
Delta Air Lines: Resembles the swept wing appearance of a jet flying overhead. Represents the capital letter "D" of the Greek alphabet, which is delta ∆. On the reverse side, it points northwest due to the merger with
Northwest Airlines.
E
Envoy Air: The logotype "envoy" with a red triangle on the letter "y".
EVA Air: Dark green background with a global logo in orange and green (modified version of the
Evergreen Group logo).
Northwest Airlines: Compass rose pointing northwest (on the port side – the compass points northeast on the starboard side). This up-and-forward-pointing design influenced
Delta Air Lines' current livery.
JetBlue: White and shades of
blue, depending on the tail logo.
P
Peach Aviation: Airline's name on vertical stabilizer on top of pink and purple wave.
S
Scoot: The logo was "Scoot" on a yellow circle with the tilted "t" outside. The livery consisted of the airline's website in the fuselage and airline's name on the vertical stabilizer, on top of an orange wave.
Solaseed Air: The logo is a 3D green fluid with 2 dots, indicating a smile.
Spirit Airlines: Bright yellow, "sketch-like" black letters on body and tail, "Home of the Bare Fare®" on engines.
StarFlyer: Pitched black livery with white wave in the bottom on the fuselage, with opposite coloring on both side of the vertical stabilizer and wingtip.
Srilankan Airlines: 'Monara' from the mythical Dandumonara Yanthra (a flying machine that resembles a peacock).
V
Varig: Varig's first logo was an image of
Icaro and its wings. After the adoption of the "star" (in fact it was a stylished compass) the Icaro figure was maintained on the fuselage of the airplanes, near the front door.
British Airways introduced unusual tailfin designs in 1997. These airline liveries and logos were intended to make the airline's branding more cosmopolitan and were described as "arty" and "ethnic". They were unpopular with many customers and also caused confusion for ground controllers who had more difficulty recognising aircraft with the
British Airways ethnic liveries to give clear taxiing instructions. Despite the £60 million expense of this livery, it was replaced completely in 2001 and the airline has now returned to a more traditional design based upon the
Union flag.[9]
Brussels Airlines' first logo was a stylised letter
B composed of 13 dots resembling a
runway. This was thought to be unlucky, and protests by
superstitious passengers caused the airline to add another dot.[10] Later in 2021, they changed the airline logo and livery, which consisted of dots in various sizes in the logo and colors in the livery.[11]
Japan Airlines' low cost, long haul subsidiary
Zipair Tokyo changed the livery with geometric design on the vertical stabilizer instead of the letter "Z" on the name, while the line on windows and the "Zipair" name still kept. The reason for the change is to avoid misunderstandings, as the letter has been used as a
military symbol by the
Russian Armed Forces during
Russia's invasion of Ukraine.[12]
Vietnam Airlines' low cost subsidiary
Pacific Airlines introduced a new logo after the split from the
Jetstar brand, which consisted of 3 tailfins stacked each other in an asymmetric hexagon shape. The livery featured a portion of the logo on the tail section.