It seems that 2018 is the year of the new livery. Lufthansa dazzled the world with their new colour scheme (!) and a few other airlines have followed suit with refreshes of their own.

Since airline branding is very important, all of the new schemes are new iterations of a current livery. None of them is really that revolutionary, however one does come close.

Gulf Air New Livery

Bahrain’s Gulf Air has introduced a pretty new colour scheme which you can see at the top of this post. They have gone for billboard lettering which is on trend and will stand out at airports around the world.


There is far less gold than in the current scheme above which should be cheaper to paint. The new livery is quite striking and I think it looks much better than the old one.

Pakistan International Airlines

With a complete change to the tail, Pakistan International Airlines or PIA have gone for a near total revamp. On the tail is a Markhor, which is a wild goat with long twisting horns.


The Pakistani flag moves to the front of the aircraft and the titles remain quite similar before. Overall, the white effect remains. Hopefully the Markhor will be explained in the inflight literature so people know what it is!

Air Transat New Livery

When it comes to Air Transat, the main change is in the colour of the blue and it is not as far along the aircraft as before. It looks fine, but it is hardly amazingly earth shattering.


As a Canadian low cost and charter carrier, I would not really expect anything too amazing. If anything the new colours are a bit simpler than before which may also save money for the airline.

Overall Thoughts

When it comes to a new livery, it is always something that is interesting to see. So far, the 2018 crop of new colours has been okay but nothing groundbreaking.

My favourite is Gulf Air, but I’ve liked their colours since their Vickers VC10s back in the 1970s. I also think the Markhor is something a bit different and very indicative of Pakistan.

What do you think of these three? Good, bad or indifferent? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

To never miss a post, follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
All my flight and lounge reviews are indexed here so check them out!

Featured image via Business Traveller.
Old Gulf Air by Konstantin von Wedelstaedt via airliners.net.
PIA image via dawn.com.
Air Transat by Andrew H Cline via Airways Magazine.