Above: A model showing the updated look for British Air's planes Below: The company is halting its conversion to multicultural designs

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September 7, 1999
Web posted at: 11:47 a.m. EDT (1547 GMT)

From Jim Morelli
CNN Correspondent

(CNN) -- It was easy to spot a British Airways jet until two years ago, when the carrier embarked on a campaign to look "less British" and more like the rest of the world by painting its planes in multicultural designs.

The hometown crowd was not amused.

"I preferred when it was the one color which showed British Airways," one woman says. "I don't like all this fancy stuff on the side. I don't think it looks good."

"Don't like them," another woman says. "They're just ridiculous."

Even former Prime Minister Lady Margaret Thatcher has something to say about the paint jobs. She reportedly calls them "awful."

So halfway through the redesign, with 180 planes finished at a cost of US $20 million, British Airways is abandoning the project and getting back down to the business of looking British. From now on, it's just red, white and blue, with the remainder of the fleet getting painted a rather hip version of the Union Jack on the planes' tails.

"The whole situation has made us very aware of how important British Airways is to the people of Britain, says Dawn Frintner, an airline official, "how much of an interest they take in what we do."

What BA really learned is one of the oldest lessons in art: You can't open a gallery without offending someone, especially when you're featuring such a varied body of work. There's a paper cut from Poland, a pottery pattern from Denmark, a Scottish tartan and a Celtic design.

While many Britons are complaining, the airline's international customers, who take up half the seats, say they enjoy the multicultural patterns. Thus, a compromise. British Airways says it will stop repainting the fleet -- but keep what's already been done.

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