A LOOK AT SPECIAL AIRLINE LIVERIES What are the worst special airline liveries of all times? According to the Points Guy blog, Southwest’s “Shamu” plane, Eva Air’s “Hello Kitty” jet and Austrian Airline’s ‘famous Austrians’ designs should all be on that list. When reading through those examples two things become clear. First of all, it’s very much open to taste and interpretation. Is the Eva Air ‘Hello Kitty’ jet so terrible? Plenty would beg to differ. With tens of millions of fans worldwide, Hello Kitty is the third highest-grossing
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Airline Marketing Monthly - August 2018
franchise of all-time with an estimated revenue over $41 billion. Secondly, the list shows how long special liveries have been around for. For example, Southwest’s “Shamu One” first started flying 30 years ago - in 1988. So this is certainly not a new idea, indeed it’s a tactic almost every major airline has employed at one point or another over the past few decades. They continue to do so, because it works: Everyone passing through an airport these days has a smartphone with them. They also have time to kill.
