American's new livery - in good company?

American Airlines new "soaring spirit", in the words of chief commercial officer Virasb Vahidi, livery is definitely a change.

It replaces the carrier's polished aluminium aircraft with the iconic red and blue eagle logo with an enlarged American across the fuselage and a stripped red, white and blue adaptation of the American flag on the tail.

Good or bad (and the popular consensus seems to be bad), American's tail design certainly has company - whether it is the company it wants to keep is another question.

Defunct US regional carrier Colgan Air flew a red, white and blue flag on the tails of its aircraft.

Flickr user wbaiv

Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst at Hudson Crossing, says that the livery reminds him of "the liveries of both Dominicana and Cubana".

Flickr user BriYYZ

The more one digs, the more it appears that American's design consultants got their inspiration from a variety of past liveries of state-run (and formerly state-run) Latin American carriers (Cubana being the exception).

Then again maybe they just watched Team America: World Police the night before the big pitch.