British Airways ethnic liveries British Airways ethnic liveries In 1997 British Airways (BA) adopted a new livery. One part of this was a newly stylised version of the British Airways "Speedbird" logo, but the major change was the introduction of tail-fin art. Also known as the Utopia or world image tailfins, they used art and designs from international artists and other sources to represent countries on BA's route network. The signature of the artist was carried near the design on the tail. The new corporate logo was created by the London-based design agency Newell and Sorrell, who also oversaw the implementation of the tailfin
British Airways ethnic liveries by covering one of the new tailfins on a model 747 with tissue paper. She declared, "We fly the British flag, not these awful things." Thatcher also indicated with these fins the airline would lose its identity. Virgin Atlantic took advantage of the controversy by applying a Union flag scheme to the front end of its aircraft. In their own 1999 relaunch, the flag was also applied to the vertical winglets of Virgin Atlantic's aircraft. While the majority of the designs were applied to a variety of aircraft models, one scheme (the stylised version of the Chatham Dockyard Union Flag)