Emirates refreshes signature livery after more than two decades

The distinctive livery of one of the world’s largest international airlines, Emirates, has undergone a refresh.

In this latest design, the United Arab Emirates flag on the Emirates tailfin is a dynamic design making use of 3D effect artwork. The wingtips have been painted red with the Emirates logo in Arabic calligraphy, making it visible for passengers onboard with a window view facing the fuselage.

“Aircraft livery is the most instantly recognisable brand real estate for any airline. It’s a visual representation of our unique identity, something we wear proudly, and display in all the cities we fly to around the world. We’re refreshing our livery to keep it modern, without losing the key elements of our identity such as the UAE flag on our tailfin and the Arabic calligraphy,” said Sir Tim Clark, president of Emirates.

The gold “Emirates” lettering across the main body of the aircraft written out in English and Arabic has been made bolder and almost a third larger. Meanwhile, the URL ‘emirates.com’ has been dropped from the design.

This is the third iteration of Emirates’ official aircraft brand colours. The original livery unveiled with the airline’s launch in 1985 had its first refresh 14 years later, with the delivery of Emirates’ first Boeing 777-300 at the 1999 Dubai Airshow.

The first aircraft to sport Emirates’ newest livery is A6-EOE, an Airbus A380, which rolled out of Emirates Engineering for its first deployment to Munich on 17th March as flight EK51.

The new livery will be gradually applied across the rest of the existing Emirates fleet with 24 aircraft, including 17 Boeing 777s, expected to sport the refreshed livery by the end of 2023.  All new Emirates aircraft, from the first Airbus A350 entering the fleet in August 2024 will be delivered in this new livery.

Emirates’ original livery was designed by the UK design company Negus & Negus in 1985. All of the airline’s subsequent aircraft colours were created by its in-house design team.

Over the years, Emirates’ numerous colourful and eye-catching aircraft livery have included bespoke designs to drive sponsorship brand association, and for special occasions such as the UAE’s 50th Jubilee livery, and Expo 2020 Dubai.