Southwest Has A New Look

Over the weekend, the Twitterverse (or at least the part of the Twitterverse that cares about such things) buzzed with rumors and pictures of Southwest Airlines' livery. And it's true. In an elaborately staged event for employees and media in a hangar at Dallas Love Field on Sept. 8, Southwest revealed its updated look. 

The new livery (painted in Bold Blue, Warm Red, Sunrise Yellow and Summit Silver, to be specific) was a year in the works, and is expcted to roll out over the next several years across the fleet. All new deliveries will be painted in the new colors. The rebranding extends to provisioning trucks, baggage carts and other ground-service vehicles visible by customers; gates and check-in counters, and employees eventually will get new uniforms. "This puts an exclamation point on a big year for Southwest," CEO Gary Kelly told the assembled throng of hundreds of cheering employees.

This year has seen a lot of change at Southwest. By the end of 2014, it will complete its integration of AirTran Airways. Its new reservations systems will be online. And perhaps the biggest change, the carrier started operating its first international flights in the summer and plans to beef up its international route network quickly. So the new livery is a way to underscore just how much has changed and how far the airline has come, an executive told me today.

Over the weekend, the livery met with the usual jeers from the aviation geek peanut gallery (which to my recollection has never liked any livery change, but that's a story for another day). However, the new look seemed to have resonated with one of its target markets. The hundreds of employees gathered at today's event seemed uniformly to like it, cheering wildly when the hangar doors opened to reveal the aircraft, named "Heart One."