In 1997 British Airways adopted a new livery. One part of this was a newly stylised version of the British Airways "Speedbird" logo (right). The major change, however, was the introduction of a wide range of tail-fin art. Also known as the Utopia or world art tailfins, they used art and designs from international artists to represent countries on BA's route network. While almost all are clearly related to a country, each aircraft also carried the name of that country on the rear of the fuselage.

The large number of German designs are a result of the existence of the BA subsidiary Deutsche BA, and the numerous Australian designs can be attributed to the airline's alliance with Qantas and the importance of the "kangaroo" route.

Contents

1 Criticism 2 Misidentification 3 Review of use 4 External links

Criticism

The adoption of this livery was seen as a move away from the traditional and strictly British image of the carrier. BA suggested that the previous "Landor" scheme carried an air of arrogance and detachment, and insisted that the new tailfins were very popular with international travellers. However they were never popular in the UK, despite nine of the designs being inspired by either England, Scotland or Wales (and one Irish scheme). Margaret Thatcher voiced her displeasure at the designs by covering one of the new tailfins on a model 747 with a handkerchief. She declared, "We fly the British flag, not these awful things."

Virgin Atlantic took advantage of the controversy by applying a Union flag scheme to the front end of its aircraft. In their own 1999 relaunch, the flag was also applied to the vertical winglets of Virgin Atlantic's aircraft.

Misidentification

Reports began to surface after the introduction of the new tailfin designs that the removal of the standard BA livery had led to aircraft being identified wrongly as belonging to another airline. BA had leased several of their 747-400s to Qantas; one of which retained the BA "Wings" scheme and white/blue livery, with just "Qantas" titles to identify its operator. Confusion as to who was operating the aircraft lead to the removal of almost all of the tailfin design.

Review of use

While the majority of the designs were applied to a variety of aircraft, one scheme (the stylised version of the Chatham Dockyard Union Flag ) was reserved for use on Concorde only. By 1999, BA had repainted around 170 aircraft in its new colours but then Chief Executive, Bob Ayling, announced a review of this process. The aircraft already repainted would keep the new designs, but the remainder of the fleet (still sporting the pre-1987 union flag design) would receive Concorde's Union flag design. The timing of the announcement was designed to divert some attention from Virgin's relaunch.

Finally in May 2001 the new Chief Executive, Rod Eddington, announced the entire fleet would receive the new Union flag livery. Eddington argues that while an attempt to increase the airline's appeal was not a bad thing, the exercise hurt the image of the carrier among its core customers - those that are attracted by the British identity, which the ethnic tailfins diluted somewhat. The removal of the ethnic tailfins is a slow process for the hundreds of aircraft in BA's fleet; some aircraft continue to wear the world tailfins.

Chatham Dockyard Union Flag on a Boeing 747	Rendezvous on a 747-436	Chelsea Rose on a Boeing 767-300	(From foreground) Whale rider, Chelsea Rose and Colum on Boeing 747s at Heathrow
Pathania on a BA Citiexpress ERJ 145	Benyhone on a Boeing 747	Delftblue Daybreak on a Boeing 767	Waves of the City on a Boeing 747
Wings on a Boeing 747 leased to Qantas	Ndebele on a Boeing 737-400	Water Dreaming on an ERJ145	Many Union Flag tailfins and one SAA 747

British Airways World Art liveries

Name	Summary	Origin
Chatham Dockyard Union Flag	Introduced on Concorde for relaunch, now the livery for entire fleet	United Kingdom
Animals and trees	Art of a tribe in the Kalahari Desert	Botswana
Avignon	Jim Avignon design, contemporary German art	Germany
Bavaria/Edelweis	German art	Germany
BA 747 Benyhone Tartan.JPG	Gaelic for "Mountain of the birds", a Scottish tartan design	Scotland
Blomsterang/Flower Field	Colourful motif of hearts and flowers	Sweden
Blue Poole	Pottery design	England
British Blend	Coffee cup design, result of New Britain competition, used on a single A320	United Kingdom
Chelsea Rose	Modern representation of the English rose	England
Colour Down the Side	Abstract art	England
Colum	Gaelic for "Dove" this is a Celtic design and one of the most adventurous	Ireland
Crossing Borders	Egyptian scroll	Egypt
Ba.b767-300.g-bzhb.800pix.jpg	Delft pottery design	Netherlands
Golden Khokloma	Representation of art on pottery and utensils	Russia
Gothic/Calligraphy	German art	Germany
Grand Union	Result of a Sunday Times competition, based on traditional English canal boat art	United Kingdom
Koguty Lowickie	Polish artist's print of cockerels, peacocks and flower	Poland
L'espirit Liberte	Celebrating human rights movement	International
La Pyramid de Louvre	One aircraft painted with image of central courtyard of Louvre museum	France
Nalanji Dreaming	Aboriginal art, originally designed for Qantas	Australia
Ndebele Martha	Vibrant, geometric art. By Martha Masanabo	South Africa
Ndebele Emmly	Similar to Ndebele Martha, by Emmly Masanabo	South Africa
Embraer.rj145.bristol.750pix.jpg	Textile print	India
Pause to remember	Poppy design, used around Remembrance Day. Now applied to fuselage	United Kingdom
BA Rendezvous tail.jpg	Chinese/Hong Kong calligraphy	China
Spring	Images of Romania	Romania
Sterntaler/Bauhaus	Antje Brüggemann 's 3-D 'ceramic objects' art	Germany
Teaming up for Britain	Adopted for 2000 Summer Olympics, features British Olympic Association logo	United Kingdom
Wunala Dreaming	Like Nalanji Dreaming, this livery was designed for Qantas	Australia
Water Dreaming	Art representing northern Australian terrain	Australia
Waves and Cranes/Nami Tsuru	Montage of a Japanese artist's depictions of waves and cranes	Japan
Ba.b747.750pix.jpg	Simple but modern and attractive	United States
Whale Rider	From wood carving representing the whaling tradition of the artist's community	Canada
BA-Qantas 747 Wings livery.jpg	Colourful art representing seagulls in flight	Denmark
Youm al-Suq	Art representing an Arab market	Saudi Arabia

External links

• British Airways ethnic liveries gallery
• BBC: BA turns tail on colours (Real Video)