Air India unveils new logo, plane colour scheme after rebranding

Airline major Air India unveiled a new logo on Thursday as part of a rebranding exercise after being acquired by the Tata Group. The Air India planes will also get a fresh coat of paint. The new logo and colour scheme were unveiled at an event in Delhi on Thursday.

The new logo is a modern take on the airline's iconic Maharaja mascot, with a more stylised design and a new colour scheme of red, white, and purple.

Launching the new logo, Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran, said the new logo "signifies limitless possibilities".

The airline's new logo replaces the old one which featured a red swan adorned with the distinctive orange Konark Chakra.

"Air India’s new logo symbol - ‘The Vista’ - is inspired by the peak of the gold window frame, signifying limitless possibilities, progressiveness, and the airline’s bold, confident outlook for the future," the airline said in a press release.

The new colour scheme retains the bold red lettering of Air India but in a different font. The colour scheme also features a patch of red on the underbelly of planes with Air India written in white. The airline said the new aircraft livery and design features a palette of deep red, aubergine, and gold highlights as well as a chakra-inspired pattern.

The new look also re-imagines the iconic Indian window shape, historically used by Air India, into a gold window frame that becomes central to the new brand design system. It symbolises a 'window of possibilities', according to a release.

"So when we were re-imagining the brand, we actually looked at elements within the Air India brand world and had a new interpretation of it. So the window which has always been on the plane, on the outside, inside menu card, the iconic Air India window which has been an enduring design symbol with the thing, we took that and re-imagined it. And the whole point of the exercise was to create something that's authentically and identifiably Indian, but presented in a very contemporary world-class manner," Tasneem Ali, Chief Creative Officer of Future Brand India, who designed the new logo for Air India, told news agency ANI.

Tata Sons acquired Air India in January 2022, through its fully-owned subsidiary, Talace Private Limited. Subsequently, it was announced that Air India and Vistara, another subsidiary of Tata Sons, would be merged to create a more unified entity. This merger is projected to be completed by March 2024.