JetBlue Introduces New ‘Tartan’ Tail Paint Scheme to Fleet

JetBlue Airways is adding a new aircraft tailfin pattern called ‘Tartan’ to its fleet.

Starting with ‘Bippity Boppity Blue’ (N565JB), an Airbus A320, which has already had its vertical stabilizer painted in the Tartan pattern, JetBlue Airways will reproduce the new tail paint scheme on additional aircraft.

This is a close-up look at JetBlue Airways’ ‘Tartan’ tailfin paint scheme, which the airline unveiled on September 24, 2014

The new Tartan vertical-stabilizer color scheme joins nine other tailfin designs across JetBlue’s fleet of 200 aircraft, which now includes 130 Airbus A320 jets, 10 A321s and 60 Embraer 190s.

JetBlue Airways holds firm orders for another 11 A320s, 41 A321s, 30 A320neos, 30 Airbus A321neo jets and 21 Embraer 190s.

“Design plays such an integral part in our story,” says Lisa Borromeo , JetBlue’s director of brand management and advertising, “While others may push revamped logos or disorienting paint schemes, we feel it’s important to build a visual language as we grow.”

On September 24, 2014, JetBlue Airways unveiled its new ‘Tartan’ aircraft tailfin paint scheme, adding to nine other tailfin paint schemes on different aircraft in its fleet. JetBlue also operates a few aircraft painted in specially themed liveries

Adds Borromeo: “Our tailfin patterns will always reflect a fresh style, with a timeless appeal that is core to who we are as a brand.”

Tartan is JetBlue’s second paint scheme to reflect a Gaelic theme. Much earlier in its relatively short history, JetBlue Airways painted the tailfins of some of its aircraft with a design it called ‘Plaid’, but the carrier retired the theme in 2003.

JetBlue Airways carries more than 30 million passengers a year on a network linking 86 cities in the U.S., Caribbean , and Latin America, the airline operating an average of 850 flights each day.