Yesterday, SAS joined the trend of many of the leading European airlines by rebranding its livery following the likes of Austrian, Lufthansa and Aer Lingus. According to the airline, the new design reflects a look to the future of the carrier, and it is, therefore, fitting that it comes at a time of major fleet renewal within the company. The first jets to proudly wear this new livery will be the brand new A350s and A320NEOs. The carrier stated that the new livery will be applied to aircraft ‘following the normal maintenance schedule’ suggesting that this will happen gradually as aircraft go in for repainting. The company added that all aircraft will be painted in the new style by 2024.
The design reflects the entering of a new chapter for SAS, and the bold placement of the famous SAS tag on the forward section of the fuselage marks just how proud the airline seems to be of this livery. They have chosen an advanced paint coating material provided by AkzoNobel, which allows fewer layers of color to be added. According to the company, ‘this reduces the weight of the aircraft significantly and translates into fuel savings as well as reduced CO2 emissions.’
This idea of looking to the future with this new livery has been one of the main goals of the project, as Rickard Gustafson, CEO and President of SAS stated. He said that it is a 'symbol of our future, a more competitive and sustainable future for SAS’. This idea of improving the competitiveness and sustainability of the company is certainly applicable to their fleet plans, as they have 53 A320neos currently on order, along with 3 A321LRs and 8 A350-900s, all of which provide great fuel efficiency and passenger comfort.
The airline has kept its instantly recognizable deep indigo blue prevalent in the design, while also keeping its tail design virtually the same as before. The deep blue flows down from the tail tapering as the rear fuselage flattens out. The main change, however, is the removal of the famous red engines of the previous livery, and the etching of ‘SAS’ in a metallic silver finish onto the forward fuselage rear of the cockpit, to replace what was before a mellow and simple ‘Scandinavian Airlines’ logo.
This livery seems to have been a success amongst passengers, which is a rare occasion with livery changes nowadays. Although the instantly recognizable red engines will be missed by many, SAS has been brave enough to not follow trends set by other airlines into painting their aircraft with the so-called Eurowhite livery style and has instead come up with a creative yet astoundingly simple design which has been, thus far, successful.
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