Northwest New Livery

[j41driver]

I'm not sure what it costs to paint an aircraft,

I don't know about a 757, but the Cheyenne II that I used to fly cost about 11 grand to get a nice paint job on it. I'd guess that we're talking several hundred thousand to do a 757.

 

[enigma]

I don't know about a 757, but the Cheyenne II that I used to fly cost about 11 grand to get a nice paint job on it. I'd guess that we're talking several hundred thousand to do a 757.

What does it cost to NOT paint an airplane? Obviously, you save the cost of: prep, paint and labor. You don't save downtime, because the airframe is out of service during heavy checks whether you paint or not. Old paint jobs don't protect against corrosion as well as new paint, and since NWA seems to like to keep their aircraft a long time (DC9's, etc) it makes good sense to maintain the airframe as well as possible. Simply, preventative damage costs less than repairing damage.

I see actions like this repaint plan as showing that NWA management expects to remain in business for the long run, and is planning for the long term.

regards,
8N

 

[SeaX]

Saab

EagleRJ,
We have 2 silver saabs for Mesaba's 25 year anniversary a few years back. Those 2 do look fairly sharp.

n439xj and n441xj

 

[Typhoon1244]

Some of y'all have missed the point...

Airliners have to be repainted periodically (corrosion control, etc.). All that's happening is as these airplanes come in for new paint, they're gonna get the new "NWA" scheme instead of the bowling shoe scheme. It's not like they're going to try to repaint the whole fleet in a couple weeks.

Look at the new scheme: it's mostly white paint and not many fancy graphics or patterns...cheap. It'd actually cost more for them to keep the old livery.

And finally, as for product recognition, in these days of super-saver fares, low-cost carriers, etc., does anybody really think the flying public cares what the airplane looks like? New York Air, ValuJet, People Express, and others proved that people will fly anything as long as the fare is low.