COMMENT: Time to Polish the Silver

It was announced last week that AMR Corp. - parent of the antiquated, bankrupted US mega-carrier American Airlines (AA) - is starting a process of rebranding which may include a change of livery for their aircraft. The iconic (and that's a word I'm not using lightly here) red, blue and polished silver that has been used since 1967 may be painted over on future deliveries, and some analysts believe that it will start with the introduction of the Boeing 787. 
This is because the aircraft is made of composites and plastics, rather than aluminium so it would not be possible for a polished silver look. 

Personally, I believe that unless it is strictly necessary American should not lose the bare metal look. This is for two primary reasons.


1. Brand
Of the many attributes an airline can utilise, heritage is one of few that can't be created artificially: either you've been around a long time or you haven't. AA has heritage in buckets. It started becoming American Airlines in the sort of form we know it way back in 1929, and even has ties to Charles Lindbergh and the early airmail pilots, a fact not a lot of carriers can lay claim to. 


The bare, polished metal represents a lot about the way flying used to be, and I'm sure that for more than a few older travellers there is a certain nostalgia linked to the old-fashioned cheatlines and simple colours on AA's aircraft. It harks back to the heyday of civil aviation, that golden era between the 1950s and 1980s when flying was still a bit glamorous, and to throw that away would seem folly. 
It has been proven time after time that an airline with a strong brand identity and image can win new customers and keep existing ones much more effectively than those without, and American already have theirs, it may just need tweaking a bit.


2. Operational
As the company itself points out, leaving the fuselages of their aircraft three-quarters unpainted saves them money on fuel because of the weight reduction (even with the current livery, the paint on an AA Boeing 767 can weigh over 130lbs!). With jet fuel making up to a third of airlines' operational costs, this is more important than ever before.
It also saves them money on the paint, as they only spend something like a quarter of what other carriers might. When you consider that next year marks the beginning of deliveries of no less than 460 aircraft to replace their current fleet, that extra 75% of paint would be a bit harsh on the old wallet.  And even if they do decide to paint the whole aircraft (there has been talk of grey, or of white such as on their regional feeder subsidiary American Eagle), that still leaves 150 aircraft in the old livery, unless they decide to retire these. So AMR Corp. will either have to shell out to repaint them or put up with discrepancies within the fleet. 




American has had a troubled few years in terms of customer service - Skytrax gives it 3 out of five stars, and Skytrax users only give it a 3/10 rating - so it is obvious that an upgrade to the brand is in order. However, my suggestion would be this: where possible, keep the bare metal on the aircraft, and change the tail paint and cheatlines slightly to modernise them. That way they still will have the basis of the iconic brand image, but with tweaking round the edges, perhaps to go alongside improved customer services and products, and other aspects of the brand. 
This should be very possible in my eyes, as although the aircraft order includes a large number of Boeing 787s (42 to be exact) that come in those lovely new composite materials, it is nothing compared to the orders of narrow-bodies they have placed - all of which are still currently manufactured in traditional, polishable, wonderful aluminium...