[PHOTOS] Aer Lingus Reveals First Brand Refresh in More Than 20 Years
Share
Aer Lingus has unveiled its first new brand identity in over two decades to reflect the carrier’s ambition to become the leading value carrier across the North Atlantic.
During a launch event for its new brand identity at Dublin Airport today, Aer Lingus showcased one of its A330-300 aircraft featuring a refreshed livery that consists of a white body with a teal-colored tail, engines and undercarriage. The Aer Lingus logo, in “Diodrum” font, retains the iconic shamrock, tilted at an angle to reflect the airline’s dynamism and speed. The aircraft sporting the new livery will take to the skies for the first time tomorrow, operating flight EI105, where it will be met by a reception at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Dara McMahon, Aer Lingus’ director of Marketing and Digital Experience, explained, “The amount of colored paint on an aircraft communicates a lot about its offering – too much and it says low cost, too little and it conveys a full-service carrier. The colors in our livery are two shades of green. The darker shade of green represents strength, while the lighter shade represents modernity and Aer Lingus’ warmth.”
The lighter shade of green is the color of the shamrock, which is featured four times across the livery: Within the new logo, on the tailfin, at the door to welcome guests and on the wingtip. McMahon said it normally takes six to seven years to introduce a new livery across an airline’s entire fleet, but Aer Lingus will aim to have the rebrand entirely completed by 2021, in just three years’ time.
The airline’s website and app have already been updated with the new branding, but there are over 400 products being rebranded in total, with the new imagery set to be visible across all guest touchpoints, from check-in to boarding gate and on board.
A new look, for a new ambition #ThisIsAerLingus pic.twitter.com/3ZCdq19K7P
— Aer Lingus (@AerLingus) January 17, 2019
The airline’s new identity was created in collaboration with Lippincott, a creative agency which has also worked with Airbus, Delta, Hawaiian and Southwest. The team was led by senior partner in Design Brendán Murphy, a Dublin native who has been working with Lippincott in New York for more than 20 years.
The two companies began their research on the new branding 12 months ago, wherein a total of 26 focus groups were conducted across six cities – Ireland, New York, Boston, Berlin, Paris and London – marking the biggest standalone research project ever undertaken by Aer Lingus.
There were three phases of research. The first two were to inform the design brief, while the third was to validate the final designs. Aer Lingus also tested its current livery. A spokesperson said, “It was found in our home market to be much-beloved, but in our international markets it communicated an airline that would get you to Ireland, but wouldn’t get you to New York. This wasn’t aligned with our current strategy, so again, validated the need for a change.”
During the launch event of its new brand identity, Mike Rutter, COO of @AerLingus, says the new branding was designed to reflect modern Irish society, which is "open, progressive, liberal, outward-looking and dynamic."
— APEX (@theAPEXassoc) January 17, 2019
Regarding its strategy, Aer Lingus’ new CEO Sean Doyle, who replaced Stephen Kavanagh in January 2019, highlighted that under, Aer Lingus’ new business model, the airline hopes to see 50 per cent of its passengers connecting through Dublin to North America, “making Aer Lingus less susceptible to economic fluctuations.”
Doyle noted that Aer Lingus has been on a journey of transformation over the last five years, expanding its route network to include Los Angeles, Newark, Hartford, Miami, Philadelphia and Seattle, with flights to both Montreal and Minneapolis scheduled to enter service in 2019.
These changes were made possible by the introduction of new aircraft including the A330-300, two more of which are due to be delivered to Aer Lingus in 2020. The airline is also set to benefit from the introduction of the A321LR. Doyle confirmed that it plans to grow its long-haul fleet from 17 aircraft today to 30 aircraft in 2023, but that the A321LR will also be used on short-haul European flights.
Today’s event also provided the first glimpse of the new Aer Lingus uniform designed by Louise Kennedy, who was also responsible for creating the airline’s current uniform, which has been in use for more than 20 years. McMahon said, “Like the new livery, the new uniform will reflect that we are a modern, international airline.” It will be unveiled in full later this year.