New Southwest and Frontier Liveries Leaked

The new Southwest livery leaked on Saturday.

Proving that keeping a secret in the aviation industry is a difficult task, it appears that both Frontier and Southwest’s new liveries leaked on the Internet Saturday. Neither airline has confirmed the authenticity of the images. There had been much speculation about what Southwest’s “special announcement” was going to be Monday morning at its Media Days event and Frontier had strongly hinted that it was rebranding by sending plain white toy airplanes with a question mark painted on the tail to select journalists prior to its own event on Tuesday. It appears now that we need not wait until Monday to find out.

New Frontier livery leaked Saturday.

Frontier’s new livery, which comes as the carrier is seeking to rebrand as an Ultra-low cost carrier, harkens back to the 1978, Saul Bass-designed logo, borrowing a stylized “F”, and adding an arrow along the length of the fuselage. It appears the animals on the tail, which have adorned Frontier’s planes since 1994, will stay.

Frontier’s 1978 Saul Bass-designed logo. Via AirwaysNews archive.

Southwest’s new livery is an evolutionary design, keeping the canyon blue color, but moving the red from the bottom of the aircraft and adding yellow to the tail and rear fuselage. Southwest also updated the font used on the aircraft bringing it in line with the new font in their in-flight magazine. This is only Southwest’s third livery in its 43 year history. The current canyon blue livery replaced the original desert gold in 2001 after 30 years in service.

While the wind may be out of the sails for this week’s major announcements, AirwaysNews will have full coverage, on location from Southwest’s Media Days beginning early Monday morning and at Frontier’s event on Tuesday. You can follow along live at both events via Twitter and Facebook.

The current Southwest livery. Via AirwaysNews archive.

The current Frontier livery. Via AirwaysNews archive.