Korean Air's new 'skin' after merger with Asiana: goodbye to the legendary 'Pepsi livery' that endured for 40 years

Fewer colors, dominance of white, minimalist logos. A peculiar 'flattening' is taking place in the world of commercial aviation when it comes to airline liveries. With the exception of very few cases, the new colors introduced by companies in the last 10-15 years are 'flat' and less distinctive than their predecessors. It happened for example in the case of Lufthansa, Aer Lingus, Finnair, Iberia to stay in Europe.

In recent hours, images of the Korean Air's new colors, and the direction is the same. The rebranding, which will be officially unveiled this week and is a consequence of the merger between the country's two largest carriers, Korean Air and Asiana, saw disappear the red that was in the Taegeuk (known in the West as 'Yin and Yang') taken from the Korean flag and present on the tail and in the 'o' of the 'Korean Air' inscription (The blue and red logo on the blue fuselage had prompted some to 'christen' the company's colors as 'Pepsi livery' because of the resemblance to those on the can of the famous carbonated beverage).

On the front of the fuselage appears the inscription 'Korean' (in a very dark blue while before it was in white) with 'Air' which was eliminated. The 'font' of the inscription has been changed and also the light blue that made an aircraft of the Korean company immediately detectable , was mutated to a darker shade, certainly more elegant but less distinctive. On the tail the Taegeuk has been stylized into a kind of 's'.

The first rebranded aircraft is a Boeing 787-10, makes HL8515. The Dreamliner spent a fortnight in Busan (Korea's second largest city) where it received its new 'skin', before returning to Seoul Incheon on March 9 and being 'caught' by several 'spotters'.