Air Canada's New Livery

To many Canadians Air Canada is the company they love to hate. They lament the service, complain about delays, whinge about the cabin crew and heap scorn on the entire outfit. The rants are always accompanied by stories detailing some apparently traumatic mishap and end with a pronouncement by the victim that they will never fly the airline again - a tall order if you live here and want to travel the world. Air Canada is after all the country's only true international airline. That said, it’s unique status does not endear it to many Canadians. For many, hating Air Canada is as much a national pastime as hating Toronto and it’s mayor who once called in the army to shovel some snow.

The other side of the coin is of course quite different. Air Canada maintains a page on it’s site with no small amount of awards and accolades that it's won over the last 25 years. It’s continued to offer full service flights to the four corners of the planet, maintained a current fleet and managed to survive in one of the toughest businesses there is. All in all not bad for a business that’s been on the ropes more than once.

No doubt mindful of its curious dual-personality Air Canada has decided it’s time for a fresh coat of paint and introduced a new livery for its aircraft. To my eye, they absolutely nailed it.

How should you brand an airline?

The short answer is that there isn’t one. It goes far beyond the look of the planes and the scope of this article. Any biography of Richard Branson would be a good place to look for answers as few in recent memory have started from scratch and built as successful an aviation franchise. Yes fellow Canadians - there is of course your beloved WestJet.

If Air Canada is the Toronto of airlines, with nothing good to be said about it, then it stands to reason that WestJet must be the Tim Hortons of the skies. To many in the Great White North, getting on a WestJet flight is like sipping a double double while you watch the kids playing hockey at the local area - the perfect articulation of Canuck bliss. They are friendly, totally perfect in every way and better than any other airline anywhere at any time aye. I was once on a WestJet flight where the Captain, with great fanfare announced that it was the airline’s birthday. I naively thought this significant event might yield a free round of drinks for us on board. No dice. Silly me.

Still, you can’t deny WestJet’s success. They have found the special sauce and become a significant force in the marketplace. Their brand is all about the friendly skies at the right price - a good recipe no doubt. That said, they don’t really look like much. It’s fair to say that the visual aspects of WestJet’s brand - logo, livery, etc are nothing special at all. It’s all rather undistinguished and devoid of the friendly personality they embody in the flesh. Maybe it doesn’t really matter what they look like to their customers, as they are totally awesome - like wheeling straight up to the speaker at a Timmy’s drive-through is awesome, dude.