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Contents 1 Criticism 2 Review of use 3 Liveries 3.1 Gallery 3.2 List 4 External links

Components British Airways BA Cityflyer Franchisees British Mediterranean Airways (Until Late Summer 2007) Comair GB Airways Loganair Sun Air Destinations British Airways destinations British Airways franchise destinations Heritage Imperial Airways British Airways Ltd British European Airways (BEA) British South American Airways British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) Other British Airways ethnic liveries Timeline of British Airways Speedbird

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 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 and other sources to represent countries on BA's route network. Each aircraft carried the name of that country on the rear of the fuselage.

The new corporate logo was created by the London-based design agency Newell and Sorrell, who also oversaw the implementation of the tailfin designs.

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.

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 showed 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.

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-1997 union flag design) would receive a variant of 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.

Animals and Trees on a Boeing 747-400	Blomsterang on a Boeing 767-300	Chatham Dockyard Union Flag on a Boeing 747-400	Chelsea Rose on a Boeing 767-300
Delftblue Daybreak on a Boeing 767	Koguty Lowickie on a Boeing 757-200	Market Day on an Embraer ERJ 145	Ndebele on a Boeing 737-400
Paithani on a Citiexpress Embraer ERJ 145	Water Dreaming on an Embraer ERJ 145	Waves and Cranes on a Boeing 767-300	Waves of the City on an Embraer ERJ 145

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
Benyhone	Anglicized 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 cornish art, used on a single Dash 8 of Brymon Airways (BA Citiexpress).	England
Colum	Anglicized Irish for "Dove": this is a Celtic design and one of the most adventurous	Ireland
Crossing Borders	Egyptian scroll	Egypt
Delftblue Daybreak	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'esprit Liberté	Celebrating human rights movement	International
La Pyramide du 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
Paithani	Textile print	India
Pause to remember	Poppy design, used around Remembrance Day. Now applied to fuselage	United Kingdom
Rendezvous	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
Waves of the City/Floating	Simple and modern	United States
Whale Rider	From wood carving representing the whaling tradition of the artist's community	Canada
Wings	Colourful art representing seagulls in flight	Denmark
Youm al-Suq	Art representing an Arab market	Saudi Arabia

• BBC: BA turns tail on colours (Real Video)
• BA tailfin gallery: Lee Collins
• Lockon Aviation Photography - Gallery