FlyBe is a large regional airline based in the UK operating the Bombardier Dash 8 Q400. With 54 examples in their fleet, they are one of the largest operators of this type.
Based in Exeter and with hubs at Manchester and Birmingham, FlyBe carries almost 10 million passengers annually. A new CEO, Christine Ourmières-Widener – previously of CityJet – is currently in the process of transforming the airline for the future.
Paintshop Video
The people who paint aircraft really deserve some kind of medal for the job they do. They have a lot of area to cover and everything must be masked off and done correctly. It wouldn’t do to have variations of a livery flying the skies!
A short one minute time lapse video of the new livery paint job has been put together by FlyBe. It’s well worth a look so check it out! Anyone want to work in aircraft painting now?
Previous Livery
Introduced in 2014, the previous livery has a lot more purple in it. It also has some colour harking back to the livery before that and “Faster than road or rail” on the engines.
Writing “Faster than road or rail” on the engines is a bit superfluous as you would hope that flying would be faster, right? Anyway, it is no longer present in the new scheme.
Overall Thoughts
I’m very happy the FlyBe paintshop have kept the purple colour as it is so distinctive. The new colours look very elegant and not having the airline name written in large type over the windows gives it less of a budget appearance that I like.
Considering boarding of a Dash 8 Q400 takes place from the rear door, it makes sense for the name of the airline to be on the tail, which is directly above where you board and is what everyone will see.
What do you think of the new FlyBe livery? Have you flown with them before? 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 by Melvin Debono via Jetphotos.
Old FlyBe livery by Ken Fielding via Wikimedia Commons.
