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Ex-Jet Airways executive recalls Air India's 1989 revamp: 'I quite liked it but…’
Sanjiv Kapoor lamented that the redesigning was not showing up in the most historical archives.
Reacting to the rebranding of the Tata Group-owned Air India, former Jet Airways CEO-designate Sanjiv Kapoor recalled an earlier revamp of the now-former national carrier, lamenting that the 1989 rebranding ‘has been largely forgotten.’
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Noting that the revamp was a failure, Kapoor, however, said that he liked it.
“This earlier attempt at a new Air India livery (by Landor) in the late 1980s has been largely forgotten, not showing up in the most historical archives etc. I quite liked it, but reaction overall was negative and it was reversed after not too long,” he wrote in a post on Saturday on X, Twitter’s new name after a rebranding of its own.
“Where it fit in the chronology of liveries…1990-91,” he stated in his next post.
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The ex-Jet Airways executive also shared photos of the revamped Air India from the 1989 exercise.
Air India’s 1989 rebranding
Carried out by Landor Associates, a globally renowned brand and visual identity firm, the image change cost $35 million (approx. ₹300 crore today). It resulted in the airline’s aircraft getting ‘dressed up’ in white fuselage, while ‘golden sun’ was used as the logo; the ‘golden sun’ had as many as twenty-four spokes emblazoned on the aircraft tail against a red sash. Simultaneously, other aspects of the airline (lounges, livery, crew uniform, cabin interiors, etc.) were also redesigned.
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The image change, however, received a negative response, prompting, as Kapoor mentioned, a return to the old designs.
Air India’s 2023 rebranding
The most recent revamp of the former ‘Maharaja’ includes golden, red and purple colours instead of the old logo of a red swan with orange spokes.
The first new jets with the new livery will fly out in December when the first of the new Airbus A350s enters the fleet, according to Campbell Wilson, CEO, Air India.
