Nice Article

UPNAWAY

Veteran
Aug 17, 2005
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DALLAS
Which on a side note is the worst major daily in America!
The headline on the website was AMWest Unveils Makeover? Say What?



Merger makeover

AmWest, US Airways to unveil 1st plane with new look

Dawn Gilbertson
The Arizona Republic
Aug. 21, 2005 12:00 AM

Late Monday night, a freshly painted Airbus A320 will emerge from a hangar at a tiny Louisiana airport and take off for Philadelphia.

The plane will pull into a darkened gate at Philadelphia International Airport for the night, ready for its unveiling in a few hours.

At 7 a.m. Tuesday, America West CEO Doug Parker and US Airways CEO Bruce Lakefield will introduce the plane to employees as the new face of the soon-to-be merged airlines. After some brief remarks, they'll hop on the plane for a five-city employee tour that will end that night with a big party at America West's hangar in Phoenix.

The hush-hush new paint scheme will be the symbolic first step by the new US Airways, a preview of the changes to come as the deal closes this fall and the nation's fifth-largest airline is born.

In Phoenix, it will be a sneak peek of the new rush-hour landscape at Sky Harbor when the paint changeover is complete in several years.

America West is the largest carrier at Sky Harbor.

Even though a plane's look, or livery, is cosmetic - the industry's equivalent of a fashion statement - executives at America West and US Airways studied the matter as seriously as other issues ahead of them, from meshing the cultures to route maps.

"It's one thing that people will judge us on," said Travis Christ, vice president of marketing for America West and the point man on the project.

The airline wanted to project the right image from the outset but didn't want to spend millions and millions on a new look given skyrocketing fuel costs and its low-cost mantra.

The plane that debuts the colors on Tuesday will be put into regular service right away, and a handful of other painted planes will join it by the end of the year.

The journey to the new US Airways livery began a few months ago in a cluster of cubicles at America West's downtown Tempe headquarters. It ended this weekend when the plane painters at Aviation Exteriors Inc. in New Iberia, La., drained the last of 60 gallons of paint.

Parker, who will be CEO of the merged airline, was intimately involved, e-mailing suggestions and research to Christ and others.

Executives' first inclination was to basically do nothing but gradually repaint America West's white, red and turquoise planes in US Airways colors, because they are adopting the US Airways name. US Airways planes are heavy on the dark blue, with red and white accents and a flag.

"We were really loath to want to change the US Airways livery at all," Christ said.

He said everyone really liked it and keeping it the same would save money because only America West's smaller fleet and airport signage would have to be repainted.

"Everything you do you have to multiply it by huge numbers - huge numbers of planes and huge number of cities," Christ said. "Any little change immediately costs millions, and in some cases tens of millions, of dollars."


Reasons for change
Several issues quickly emerged that argued against the existing US Airways look. One of the biggest concerns came from pilots and flight attendants. They worried that the dark-blue color would bake the planes even more during the searing summer heat in the Phoenix and Las Vegas hubs.

The concern about additional expenses lessened when they realized many of US Airways planes are due for a repainting soon anyway. Paint jobs usually last five to seven years, but US Airways had delayed some of those during its two trips through bankruptcy court.

Also weighing heavily: the desire to include some of each airline's look in the new look for employees' sake. Parker has repeatedly said a plane's livery is probably more important to them than to customers, because it's part of their identity.

"We're trying to create a new culture here between the two companies," Christ said. "So how do we make sure that everybody feels included and that one side is not more important than the other side?"

It all added up to a new livery.


Simple approach
Hiring an expensive design firm - which airlines, like many businesses, regularly do - was out, because of the cost, Christ said. The tab can reach into the millions, he said.

America West turned to its four-person creative-services department for ideas, and it took off from there.

To keep things simple, they started with US Airways livery as the base and tweaked it. Christ and others won't reveal the final look, but a few clues from the company and Internet chatter provide a glimpse. In a sneak peek sent to employees, the top half of the fuselage is clearly light colored, and the belly is dark blue with a red stripe above it.

The computer-generated images on the Internet suggest a plane that looks most similar to US Airways' current planes, just much lighter.

"One of them is very close," Christ said.

Those most familiar with the new look aren't talking. The painters and other employees at Aviation Exteriors (AvEx) had to sign a non-disclosure agreement. So did other clients on site and even visitors to the plant at Acadiana Regional Airport. The agreements are standard to ensure secrecy when a new paint scheme is involved. Security hasn't been a problem because AvEx is pretty much in the middle of nowhere. New Iberia is 20 miles south of Lafayette on the coast.

"We're a small company in a small town," he said.

AvEx, one of the country's top aircraft painters, with operations in Louisiana and Portland that accommodate planes as large as a Boeing 747, paints FedEx's and a host of other airlines' planes. It did United Airlines' new livery and had done work for US Airways.

Dean Love, general manager of the Louisiana operation, said AvEx got a three-week notice that it won the initial paint job for the new US Airways.

That doesn't sound like much, but he said that's an eternity in his business.

"If you have an empty hangar slot and somebody calls you, you can take the plane tomorrow," he said. "We're a pretty quick-response type of business."

The plane arrived in Louisiana a week ago Friday, and the typical paint job on an A320 runs eight days, he said. Half the time is spent prepping the plane, stripping and sanding it, the rest painting with sprayers. The plant has 100 employees and runs around the clock. The plane needs about 72 hours to dry before it can be flown.

Love said the US Airways business, even though it's just a single plane at this point, is good advertising for his firm.

"Anytime a new livery hits the skies, it's big news," he said. "That helps from our standpoint."

He said AvEx hopes to secure the contract to repaint the entire fleet of 360 planes. That will be done over several years.

America West and US Airways officials won't know if they've hit on a winner until reaction starts pouring in Tuesday, but Christ said he thinks they achieved the balance between the two airlines that they were seeking.

"They're (US Airways) seen as too Northeast stiff and we're seen as too Out West loose, and we want to be business-casual," Christ said.


US Airways baggage
Mike Boyd, an aviation consultant in Evergreen, Colo., said he simply hopes that they distance the airline as much as possible from the old US Airways.

He was against the name change, arguing that America West's reputation is much better than US Airways'. The latter has had various troubles, including a baggage meltdown over the holidays last year. America West officials have said the US Airways name is much better recognized on the East Coast and in Europe.

"You want to show the world you have a new and different airline," he said. "The last thing they want to do is buy the assets of US Airways and paint everything to look like the old US Airways. The old US Airways didn't work."
 
"They're (US Airways) seen as too Northeast stiff and we're seen as too Out West loose, and we want to be business-casual," Christ said.


I liked that quote. Business Casual is how everyone dresses in PHX year round. Not SWA (too relaxed) but comfortable for sure.