I assume the very next 787 deliveries are coming in the new livery. I also noticed that 787-9 FIN 843 C-FKSV is in the new colours on the promo pictures on the AC site. This is a very recent build, was delivered last summer. Could it have been repainted so soon??? Or is it a computer-generated image?

Beech

I still like toothpaste better, but this one is already growing on me especially after seeing the picture of the A321 flying. The one thing I think is that the small rondelle on the front needs to be moved to the correct place beside the title, it kind of looks ridiculous where it is now.

An easy way to fix the maple leaf under the titles is to make it smaller and move it to the front, under the cockpit like how Lufthansa has it with the crane.

How many aircraft are being painted this year? I heard a quote saying they will be focusing on the 777s and 787s for the next 14-18 months, but can't seem to find that in writing.

They should center the roundel on the tail. Looks way too low

yycdel wrote:

They should center the roundel on the tail. Looks way too low

I think if they raised the rondelle on the tail, it would be too small. I think it looks better on the A321, and I suspect that it will look better on all aircraft that don't have tail fins as tall and skinny towards the top. Would have looked fantastic on the 747! I REALLY hope they move the location of the rondelle below the windows though.... it looks so out of place, and my eyes keep being drawn towards it.

Hi all - flame me, but I think in fact that's the best livery Air Canada ever had!

It's classy and immediately gives you confidence flying with a "serious" airline or flag carrier.

I first thought the dark colour is dark blue, which might have been "more Canadian", but I think the black is very classy as well and is fitting very good to the red rondelle.

I like as well he rondelle below the windows, maybe it might have been looking more classy below the cockpit windows in Lufthansa style, but if you board the plane via stairs it will be very prominent. I think as well a red line would destroy this clear and crisp livery

I am as well happy the brought the rondelle as the central element back - I think it is one of the best logos, and together with the black you might build up a complete new and nice design line.

The OLD livery was nice as well, in my opinion, but I am sure it was too cost intensive. I guess the management gave the design bureau an instruction to make a plain livery with not too many colours, in order to keep the COSTS down!

And thinking of Rouge - I am convinced that this livery in red would be not so nice. This bright red is not a colour giving you trust and confidence a national carrier should represent.

I like it. Reminds me of their beautiful previous scheme. Canada goose eyes too, very nice. Vast improvement over the toothpaste scheme IMO.

This picture makes me like it...a lot.

https://www.airliners.net/photo/Air-Cana ... 11/4218599

Byebye toothpaste jets! Woohoo!!

First new livery I've really liked in a long time. Very classic.

Does anyone know why AC decided to drop a good livery (the existing one)? What was the motivation to do that? What did they feel was wrong with it....?

This almost feels somewhat like the redesigning of the a.net website......a good site was discontinued and a completely user-unfriendly and clumsy site introduced in its place.....the AC livery change is very much in line with that.....

Does anybody know why the B1900s won't be getting the new livery? It would be neat to see them adorened this way.

I really don't see the Delta similarities. The bottom of the fuselage is nothing like Delta, nor is the font or the tail for that matter.

I didn't think the GE engines could be painted (or is that only the RR ones)?

This new livery of Air Canada is a great improvement over the previous livery. It is probably one of the best liveries Air Canada ever had. I do also like the retro livery that Air Canada had.

Holy FartyMcFartFace

Don't know if anyone has mentioned this (this is a long thread to search through), but the "mask" is similar to the design on aircraft of Avior Airlines, a Venezuelan airline. I don't know what Avior's reasoning is behind having the mask though.



I kind of like the new livery; it stands out much more in my opinion. Will need to see it in person though...

It needs more teal

KLDC10 wrote:

This picture makes me like it...a lot.

https://www.airliners.net/photo/Air-Cana ... 11/4218599

It's worth being able to see it in the thread:

Wow, this looks great! Love that they brought back the rondelle, a nice retro nod. The black is very crisp and, when contrasted with the white, really makes the overall livery pop. The red accents from the rondelles on the tail and fuselage also add just the right touch of warmth. I personally could not stand the toothpaste livery. It was so incredibly bland and cold-looking (yes I know Canada is cold, but the people aren't!), there was no soul to it. Even if you don't like it, not sure how anyone could call this bland compared to toothpaste, which was literally just an all off-white plane with red titles. Think of it what you will, but the new one certainly couldn't be more bland than toothpaste.

And can I just say, as someone who works with graphic designers day-to-day and has worked with people who have crafted airline liveries, the "probably took 2 minutes to design in Microsoft paint" comments are such cop-outs. While a livery may look visually simple, quite a lot of thought and design-work goes into them. It's absolutely OK if you don't like the end result, but let's be adults about it.

It evokes black limousine and white gloves.The black cowlings resemble the bumpers(association of ideas) or a black ebony grand piano with red mahogany embellishments.The bandit windows mean "it would have been nice to add a black cheat line but we cannot carry it that far,can we?" Very black and white in my humble opinion (another association of ideas-good old whiskey)-just wait until the luster starts to wear out what it will look like. One word of caution: just do not apply it fleet-wide (yet).You can add some gold like SIA,it needs gold.But as it is...no way Steinway!

Will be harder to pick out AC in ATL etc.

voodoo wrote:

Will be harder to pick out AC in ATL etc.

It'll be fine. if you see an aircraft with titles readable from a distance you know it can't be DL.

aerolimani wrote:

KLDC10 wrote:

This picture makes me like it...a lot.

https://www.airliners.net/photo/Air-Cana ... 11/4218599

It's worth being able to see it in the thread:

Thanks wasn't sure how to do that.

Polot wrote:

I know this is going to be an unpopular opinion, but I like it. Just wish it had a small red pinstripe in the upper part of the black underbelly.

I have to say I also like it. It reminds me a lot of British Airways' old "Landor" livery: http://taylorempireairways.com/2009/11/ ... 1984-1997/

Dominion301 wrote:

toxtethogrady wrote:

Ho-hum. Black to the future...

If the fuselage took 5 minutes, the tail took 2 minutes. Slap the roundel/rondelle on the 1993 livery et voila! All the visual imagination of an engineer.

I think you are probably being a bit sarcastic about the total of 7 minutes to design this new livery. And I get that, any design this simple always seems like it must have taken just minutes on a Mac. But, I know first hand how this happens. After the client and agency agree on a creative brief, that is informed by a lot of data and a lot of strategic brand positioning work, MANY designs are created over the course of many weeks, and in tandem with the client, refinements and changes occur and frankly takes a lot of time before the final design is signed off on. I would feel very safe in saying that tens of thousands of HOURS went into the branding and packaging of Apple, probably one of the finest examples of "less is more" but looks like it took 7 minutes- and unarguably Apple's branding extremely successful.

I would equally bet almost as much time has gone into this AC livery (love it or hate it) it was clearly done with great intent, because what is NOT lost on AC management are the massive costs associated with such a change, so a lot of time is invested before the "go" button is pushed.

As for my personal opinion, while it is not as evocative and emotive as Etihad's new livery, it certainly is a much better "design" (IMHO) than IBERIA, and has laid the groundwork for the Maple Leaf and "rondel" to become as iconic as the SINGAPORE Crane, Delta's widget or (dare I say) the old UNITED tulip! But nothing beats the PanAm globe!

longhauler wrote:

Contrary to what most think when looking at pictures and drawings, it is not black ... it is grey.

That's what it seemed to me, thank's for confirming.

longhauler wrote:

and definitely not "in-your-face" like Rouge.

LOL.

I must admit it looks marginally better out in the open but it still suffers from balance issues, the logo is too small/low on the tail and the positioning of it under the window line is still very awkward looking.

What's worse is that a few minor alterations could makes this a very classy looking livery, just add a red line above the belly, move the logo from below the window line to above it next to the titles and increase the size of the tail logo or its position to even out the amount of empty space visible. A very dark green instead of black would go a long way in matching the marketing talk that came with this livery as well.

Interesting that Winkreative who designed the livery, also handle the Porter Airlines brand. Which has a... masked racoon as a brand mascot:

I should note up front: I am one of the folks that finds the current livery somewhat hideous. (I realize and respect that many people like the current livery, I'm just not one of them. I actively dislike it). That said: initial reaction to the new livery was:
- well it's not toothpaste, so that's good
- but it's kind plain and stark
- and I really don't like that black tail

Having read through the thread and seen the additional pictures (thanks to all for sharing) I like the tail more from the real in-person pictures vs the computer generated image, though I'm still not sold. Overall, I find that new livery boring but unoffensive. I'm certainly I'll never love it, but doubt I'll actively dislike it.

Frankly, I think the Rogue tails are far better looking than anything that the main AC has done. I actually find them quite nice.

SpaceshipDC10 wrote:

longhauler wrote:

Contrary to what most think when looking at pictures and drawings, it is not black ... it is grey.

That's what it seemed to me, thank's for confirming.

longhauler wrote:

and definitely not "in-your-face" like Rouge.

LOL.

AC's own document mentions black tail, black belly, black engines, black titles on page 10-12.


https://www.aircanada.com/content/dam/a ... ide_en.pdf

I wonder if it would look good just like that, except with their old blue color in place of the white.

What's going to happen with the Air Canada Express livery? Will they receive the same paint?

AC should have made a survey with plus/minus 3 variants. One should have been the toothpaste design with modifications and another one the current new black & white.
The outcome would have been interesting...

ricardofg wrote:

What's going to happen with the Air Canada Express livery? Will they receive the same paint?

Yes https://www.aircanada.com/content/dam/a ... ide_en.pdf

I'm a big fan of this livery - more suited to a flag carrier than the previous livery was in my opinion, and differentiates it from the Rouge brand much more clearly.

Classy and understated - love it.

A question was asked earlier that I'm still wondering about. Someone said that the Air Canada Express livery is being completely removed from the Beachcraft 1900D airfcraft. Does that mean they will no longer be part of Air Canada's fleet and routes, or is something else happening?

When is the first A333 due to receive the new livery? Hopefully it will be ugly C-GHLM.

The tier 3s will lose the Express branding. But will still fly AC code.

sixtyseven wrote:

The tier 3s will lose the Express branding. But will still fly AC code.

Do you know why it was decided to do things this way? Will they fly with their own liveries now?

SpaceshipDC10 wrote:

When is the first A333 due to receive the new livery? Hopefully it will be ugly C-GHLM.

Pray tell, what makes this one particularly ugly? Fading and/or peeling? There were a few DLs and old battleship UAs like that after the blue tulip was introduced.

CF-CPI wrote:

SpaceshipDC10 wrote:

When is the first A333 due to receive the new livery? Hopefully it will be ugly C-GHLM.

Pray tell, what makes this one particularly ugly? Fading and/or peeling? There were a few DLs and old battleship UAs like that after the blue tulip was introduced.

It's the Star Alliance painted A330.

A day later I've decided I really like it. After the shock of the extent of the change from the old livery, I think it is pretty bold. I like the mask -it is somehow retro and forward looking. Looking forward to seeing it in the flesh (hint, hint, how about flying to MEL AC?)

I agree this livery is growing on me fast, I really like it.

I would agree with that. I wasn't sure when I saw it, as I was a fan of the old livery. Now the old livery just looks....old.

shamrock350 wrote:

I must admit it looks marginally better out in the open but it still suffers from balance issues, the logo is too small/low on the tail and the positioning of it under the window line is still very awkward looking.

What's worse is that a few minor alterations could makes this a very classy looking livery, just add a red line above the belly, move the logo from below the window line to above it next to the titles and increase the size of the tail logo or its position to even out the amount of empty space visible. A very dark green instead of black would go a long way in matching the marketing talk that came with this livery as well.

Your view that the logo on the tail is too small and too low is contradictory. If you raised the logo it would be even smaller. The low positioning permits it to be as large as possible.

And reverting to a dark green tail would be too reminiscent of the dark green tail from the livery in effect when AC filed for bankruptcy protection in 2003. Considering how successful AC has been at turning themselves around financially since then I don't think they want to remind people of those days.

I was happy with the old livery but it was time for a change and the new livery is a much better match for their redesigned cabin interiors introduced a year or more ago, now mainly dark gray with some red touches. The old livery matched the old blue cabins.

voodoo wrote:

Will be harder to pick out AC in ATL etc.

Should have used a JetBlue aircraft.

Other than the raccoon mask what is trendsetting about this livery? Dark bottom liveries have been a "thing" since Braniff 2 started debutted it.

Will be interesting to see how the black holds up to UV rays at 40K ft.

Gr8Circle wrote:

Does anyone know why AC decided to drop a good livery (the existing one)? What was the motivation to do that? What did they feel was wrong with it....?

I would like to answer to this too? Wasn't the "toothpaste" livery relatively new too?