Spirit Airlines brings back the Yellowbird with its new bright yellow “Bare Fare” livery

Spirit Less Money More Go logo

Spirit Airlines (Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood) following Southwest Airlines (Dallas) and Frontier Airlines (2nd) (Denver) has introduced a new full-fuselage bright yellow color scheme based on its recently introduced “Bare Fare” advertising campaign. Previously Northeast Airlines (Boston) and Hughes Airwest (Phoenix) used the color yellow to grab attention. The first flight will be tomorrow as flight NK 259 from Atlantic City to the Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood base. The first aircraft to be painted is Airbus A319-132 N534NK (msn 3395) (see below).

Spirit Bare Fare logo

Spirit Airlines issued this statement:

The skies will now have a plane with a unique paint scheme that will be clearly identifiable even at 35,000 feet. Spirit Airlines unveiled its new design that matches the bright and bold branding the company announced last May.

The bright yellow plane with black trim began service with a flight from Atlantic City (ACY) to Fort Lauderdale (FLL).

“This new livery perfectly matches Spirit Airlines,” said Ben Baldanza Spirit’s President and CEO. “It’s radically different from other airlines, and it’s fun, just like we are. When you see this plane in the air – or on the ground – there will be no question that this is a Spirit plane.”

The new livery also matches Spirit Airlines low-cost business philosophy. The simple, two-color design is much more cost-effective than more complex, multi-colored designs. Additionally, since Spirit does not spend money on expensive advertising campaigns, the bold and bright design acts as a flying billboard and captures a lot of attention with no additional cost. These savings are passed on to customers with even lower fares.

Airbus A319 N534NK is the first of Spirit’s fleet to get the new design. Six more planes will receive the new livery in the next couple of months. New planes currently on order will come with the new design beginning next year. Spirit planes currently in service will keep their current designs until their regularly scheduled time frame to be repainted.

Update: Airbus A319-232 N534NK arrived at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport for the first time in the new look on September 17 (below).

Spirit A319-100 N534NK (14)(Grd) FLL (Spirit)(LRW)

Copyright Photo: Spirit Airlines.

Spirit Airlines Aircraft Slide Show: AG Slide Show

Video: The painting of the first Airbus A319:

4 thoughts on “Spirit Airlines brings back the Yellowbird with its new bright yellow “Bare Fare” livery”

  1. Oliver

    Is this livery staying? If so I’m not not a fan. It looks like a 5 year old drew it. Spirit have taken a perfectly good livery and unnecessarily changed it. Could this be the start of a phase were some airlines become sheep and just change their liveries because their competition are?

    What are your thoughts?

    All the best

    Oliver

  2. Bruce Drum

    I believe so Oliver. Spirit wants to be an attention-getting company. They are using the Ryanair ultra LCC playbook. If you look at this new bare fare ad campaign, you will will note they are “embracing the haters”. People complain and hate them but according to the CEO they keep coming back due to their low fares and ad-ons for everything a la Ryanair.

    I knew something was coming several months when they changed their logo to this hand drawn black titles on bright yellow. The rainbow livery just doesn’t fit any more with this new ad campaign. Spirit becomes a three-liveried airline like others in the past (Delta, United etc.). One way or the other, they need to standardize their fleet and how it looks. For us over here, three new liveries in a week is a new record. It will be an interesting fall “shooting season” for our photographers.

    All the best.

    Bruce

Comments are closed.