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Jetstar has quietly premiered a revised livery featuring the group's new typography and all black billboard titles.

The livery, for the group's Airbus fleet, will be applied to all new aircraft while aircraft in old schemes "will be repainted as required," a Jetstar spokeswoman says.

The previous logo featured "Jet" in black, "star" in orange, and ".com" in gray, all in a block sans-serif typeface. The new logo also uses a sans-serif typeface but one with more curves. A thinner version of the typeface is used for the ".com" part of the title.

Jetstar introduced the revised livery as part of its "refreshed branding" across the group. The logo was first publicly used in May when Jetstar overhauled its website.

Qantas previously refreshed its marketing looks by adopting a sans-serif typeface for non-logo uses.

The revised Jetstar livery was first seen, above, on a newly-manufactured Airbus A320 at the airframer's Hamburg site. The aircraft, MSN 4772 and bearing French test registration F-WWDH, is due to be delivered to Jetstar Asia where it will be-registered 9V-JSK.

For the livery of the newest Virgin Group airline, Virgin Australia creative director Hans Hulsbosch took inspiration from the Group's oldest livery: the 1984 scheme that debuted on Virgin Atlantic's Maiden Voyager.

"I went all the way back to the origins of Virgin and then leapfrogged, hopefully, to another era," Hulsbosch says on the Sydney airport tarmac last Wednesday after his livery was unveiled.

The era he mentions is the re-branding of Virgin Blue and its individually-named subsidiaries to "Virgin Australia". Hulsbosch's task was to do more than make a cosmetic change: Virgin management reckoned its old look could not promote its new business class and spiffed-up economy class without passengers thinking of the airline's low-cost heritage.

To signal that change, the carrier centred its look on the asset that has associated Sir Richard Branson's companies with service and quality: the Virgin brand. "The focus is very much on the name Virgin, very much, more so than ever before because that is the brand and it is one of the most powerful brands in the world," Hulsbosch says.

"The key was to keep it really simple," he says, acknowledging there are also cost benefits of a simpler scheme. "When I think of Virgin, I think white, pure, simple." He forwent a modification of Virgin Atlantic's new livery to instead draw inspiration from Virgin Atlantic's first Boeing 747-200, painted white with a red cheatline and a conspicuous large white Virgin logo on a red empennage.

Hulsbosch created what is possibly the first airline livery crescendo. "The red shape starts to build," he says looking at the newly-liveried Airbus A330-200 a hundred metres in front of him. "I'm looking at a plain stripe on the engine that gives it a sporty kind of feel, but then it goes to the wingtip where there's more colour, then it ends up on the tail."

And what a tail it is: the Virgin logo stretched vertically for the first time in the Group's history. "It doesn't get any bigger," Hulsbosch laughs.

"I wanted it to be seriously bulgy. We needed to make a real statement. Tell the world we've changed."

Indeed, the only lingering in Virgin Australia's new fast-paced advertisement is at the 53 second mark where there is a closeup of an A330 tail emblazoned with "Virgin".

The Flying Lady also received a makeover. Gone is the skimpy beach outfit in favour of what Hulsbosch terms a more "sophisticated", one colour emblem. "If I were to stick the old Flying Lady on, it would jar like you wouldn't believe," he says. "It is still the basic concept Richard Branson had in the early days: absolutely purity."

Hulsbosch brought continuity to the Group by using Virgin Atlantic's typeface. "It is about the time the brands align somewhat but not totally. Each one can still have its unique details." Instead of Virgin Atlantic's large, billboard titles Hulsbosch opted for smaller ones, saying, "The focus was right on Virgin. Everything else plays a smaller role in the overall design."

Last week's unveiling with Virgin Australia chief executive John Borghetti, Branson, and the media was the first time Hulsbosch had seen his work. "It's frightening," he jokes. "When you see it for the first time in 3D, in real size, in real time you think right. Okay. The baby is born."

The unveiling capped the year and a half Hulsbosch said he had "from word to go" to execute the project, a curious timeline since Borghetti had been in office for less than a year and Virgin announced Hulsbosch's appointment only last September.

Joining Virgin was a change to his last airline gig: updating Qantas' logo. But Hulsbosch handles the irony diplomatically. "They're two different brands. One is a national brand. One is a global brand," he says.

Does he have a favourite?

"I do currently."

Two re-branded aircraft have met in Sydney for the airline's official re-launch as Virgin Australia. Boeing 737-800 VH-YFC arrived first from Christchurch, where it had been re-painted, and Airbus A330-200 VH-XFB arrived from Malaysia's Subang where it had been re-painted.

Missed the Virgin Australia story as it unfolded? Re-read the developments:

If the hints were not enough that Virgin Blue would re-brand as Virgin Australia, the airline has today applied to the country's corporate regulator to formally begin changing its name to Virgin Australia.

In forms signed by Virgin Blue company secretary Merren McArthur, Virgin Blue International Airlines has reserved Virgin Australia International Airlines for its name change while Virgin Blue International (Holdings) has reserved Virgin Australia International (Holdings).

"It's simply part of a process to reallocate business names between existing companies within our group," a spokesman says, even though the two new reserved names by definition are original and not existing, to which he could not comment on. He could not be drawn to explain why names might be "reallocated".

Recently, the Virgin Group's brand management group trademarked a Virgin Australia logo. The spokesman declined to comment on it, saying "When the time comes to make an announcement, we'll certainly do so."

No filings have been lodged yet for Pacific Blue, Polynesian Blue, or V Australia. Separately, sources now confirm V Australia will absorb Pacific Blue and Pacific Blue aircraft will be re-painted in the existing V Australia livery. The arrangement with Polynesian Blue is unknown.

The former Virgin Blue's shift to Virgin Australia has been a gradual transition to a closer alignment with Virgin Atlantic, first with new uniforms and most recently with a similar logo. But the future Virgin Australia will not complete the look with a red tail.

Virgin Australia's tail will instead be a white/silver base with the handwritten "Virgin" logo in a deep red or purple, according to a source who has seen part of the new livery. The design could be inferred from Virgin Australia's recently trademarked logo.

Forgoing a red tail--as has been the case with Virgin Blue--shows the carrier prefers to distance itself from Qantas, the other red tail operator, and let its offering speak for itself. But with Virgin Australia dropping its predecessor's all red fuselage, the signature Virgin colour has now been relegated to detail status.

What's left is promised to be very modern, and which Virgin Village presumably reckons is what today's passengers want.


Below is a unique shot arranged by Flightglobal showing the red tails of three Virgin operators after V Australia's inaugural flight to Los Angeles in 2009. The setting was used for our cover interview of three Virgin chief executives.

INSIDE

• Virgin Group acquires Virgin Australia name and Internet domain virginaustralia.com.au
• Virgin Blue applying new name internally
• Virgin Blue executives appointed to Virgin Australia Airlines and Virgin Australia Holdings
  

Virgin Blue is in final stages to re-brand its domestic operation as Virgin Australia following the federal court siding with a claim from Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group that a Victorian company was infringing on the Virgin Australia trademark.

The lawsuit's applicant, Virgin Enterprises Limited, the Virgin Group's London-based company that owns and leases over 2000 "Virgin" trademarks, trademarked the Virgin Australia name in February 2010 in 200 categories including air travel, seating reservation, loyalty programmes, passenger lounges, package tours, promotion of sport events, freight services, in-flight entertainment, limousine hire, airport parking, and model aeroplanes.

The court ordered the Victorian company, Virgin Australia Pty Limited, to legally change its name and be restrained from using the Virgin Australia name. On 24 February the company changed its name and Virgin Enterprises then reserved the Virgin Australia name, according to Australian Securities & Investments Commission filings, which were received on 25 February. Companies must submit a complete application within two months of their initial filing, leaving less than a fortnight for Virgin Enterprises to do so.

The court also ordered Virgin Australia to remove advertisements and listings in telephone directories across the country as well to remove content from its website at virginaustralia.com.au and then transfer the domain registration to Virgin Enterprises.

Virgin Enterprises is listed as the owner of the virginaustralia.com.au website that is now blank, a change that only occurred recently, sources familiar with the situation say. It is believed the transfer of the domain was one of the last external steps leading up to the public launch of the re-branded airline, Virgin Australia.

Virgin Enterprises owns the current Virgin Blue trademark and leases it to the airline. The same arrangement is expected to be in place for the Virgin Australia re-branding.

Virgin Blue is understood to have already taken the Virgin Australia name, stylised to resemble Virgin Atlantic's logo, and apply it internally in select circumstances.

Representatives of Virgin Enterprises were unavailable for comment. A Virgin Blue spokesman declines to comment on the lawsuit, saying "That litigation does not involve the Virgin Blue Group. It would be inappropriate for us to make any comment. We are not a party to it." As for the re-branding to Virgin Australia, the spokesman says: "We have not made any public statements on the outcome of the re-branding exercise."

The branding of Virgin Blue's international operations is unconfirmed. The Virgin Group has established holding companies including Virgin Australia Holdings Pty Limited, registered in 2000, and Virgin Australia Airlines, registered in 2007. Virgin Blue executives have recently been listed with both organisations as company officeholders. Sean Donohue, group executive operations, was most recently added on 23 March, according to the ASIC. The Virgin Blue spokesman was unable to comment on the appointments.

Incidentally, the previous owner of the Virgin Australia Twitter account has been suspended, paving the way for the carrier to acquire it. On Facebook, the username and web extension facebook.com/virginaustralia is available.

The re-branding could be announced early next month when Sir Richard Branson will be in the region after serving as a flight attendant on an AirAsia X flight from London to Kuala Lumpur. It is believed Virgin Blue hoped to announce the re-branding, with Branson's presence, in February but the trademark infringement delayed the announcement.

Last year Virgin offered the Virgin Australia business holders a figure in the low tens of thousands of dollars to surrender their business name and Internet domain, but the company counter-offered an amount in excess of one million dollars, sources familiar with the situation say. Virgin Enterprises then filed its suit on 25 November. There were two mediation sessions although it is unknown if the previous Virgin Australia name owners received any compensation.

Virgin Australia Pty Limited had exclusively sold promotional and corporate gift "Easyreader" bookmarks that feature a sliding indicator (light blue panel, right) to remind readers where they left off in a passage, archived versions of its website indicate. Its slogan beckoned, "Easy reading with Easyreader". There was no explanation linking the company or the Easyreader bookmark to its Virgin Australia company name, which it registered in April 2004, according to the Australian Government.

The company's website carried the disclaimer that Virgin Australia "is an Australian owned company, founded in March 1991 in accordance with all Australian Government and Corporate Laws. Virgin Australia wishes to make it clear, that it does not want to be confused or associated with Sir Richard Branson's - Virgin group of companies."

The previous owners of Virgin Australia used a logo featuring a boomerang and Southern Cross constellation (right), design elements used by Virgin Blue and V Australia, but it is not immediately clear how contentious the logo was in the lawsuit. The company changed its name to Easyreader Pty Limited. It could not be reached for comment.

The lawsuit's resolution was finalised on 24 February, the day Virgin Blue chief executive John Borghetti and senior management left for Abu Dhabi on V Australia's inaugural service to the UAE capital.

Borghetti has said the re-branding, which could consist of multiple brands, would be unveiled before the end of the financial year on 30 June.

Virgin Enterprises' lawsuit also filed trademark infringement against the owner of the websites virginadultproducts.com.au and virginap.com. The court ordered the website domains to be transferred to Virgin Enterprises. It is understood Virgin Enterprises taking possession of those websites was unrelated to the airline's re-branding.

This Wednesday has been tooted as a very historical day for the Virgin Blue Group. Besides the group's half-annual results, what might we hear? Here are some possibilities.

• New uniform. All but guaranteed: flight attendants have picked up their uniforms, signed confidentiality agreements, and will start wearing the uniform on 23 February, the same day there will be a media unveiling at the Westfield Sydney shopping centre. For more, and what the uniform will look like, see here.
• New name, logo, and livery. "Virgin Australia" still seems to be the running favourite, but will Singapore Airlines allow them to use the name? Or will some in Virgin management have their way and drop the Virgin branding?
• An alliance with at least one Asian airline.
• A new service to a major city in Asia. Hong Kong, the perennial favorite, is still talked up, as is Shanghai.
  
• Additional Airbus A330 aircraft. These would be for the very short-term. The fleet could also be announced as going overseas, notably to Asia (see above).
• Additional Boeing 777 aircraft. V Australia will eventually need more. Is now the time? Some say yes. Curiously, the old talk of inducting -200LRs into the fleet for New York services still seems to be circulating.
• Order announcement for turboprop fleet. ATR-72s seem to be the running favourite. Although ATR does have an unidentified order, that order is not believed to be for Virgin.
• New domestic cabin, including new premium class. Also a mention of when Sky Interior deliveries will start, and what the A330 interior will be? (Apparently economy won't be much but business should have a few doodads.) With regards to IFE, Virgin has reportedly run into licensing disagreements with Panasonic for the Red system V Australia uses.
  

What do you think?

In February when Express Freighters Australia, the wholly-owned freighter management company for Qantas, deploys a 767-300F for Qantas Freight, the aircraft will be the first freighter to wear a Qantas livery (sans kangaroo on the tail).

Virgin Blue has confirmed what it has been wink winking, nudge nudging at for months: it will introduce a new livery.

The carrier says it has hired Hans Hulsbosch as Creative Director who will be tasked with creating the carrier's new livery as well as corporate identity. Virgin Blue has not given a timeline or cost for the project.

While there was no mention of uniting the group's four brands--Virgin Blue, Pacific Blue, Polynesian Blue, and V Australia--Virgin Blue Group CEO John Borghetti has all but confirmed that.

"Even Brett [Godfrey] before me made comment along the lines that it would be a good thing if one day we operated under one brand. And certainly my view is just that," Borghetti said at the carrier's annual results in Sydney last month.

Borghetti is not ruling out any option, including scrapping the existing boomerang logo or the Virgin brand, although he notes the latter is unlikely. The long-favoured and speculated name would include "Virgin". But as aviation lore goes, when in 1999 Singapore Airlines took a 49% stake in sister Virgin Group airline Virgin Atlantic, one of the terms was "Virgin" could not be used internationally without Singapore Air's permission.

The connotation was that since Singapore Air wanted fifth freedom rights to fly between Australia and America, it did not want the prospect of competing with a carrier under the Virgin brand. Hence why Virgin Blue's international subsidiaries--Pacific Blue, Polynesian Blue, and V Australia--forgo the name "Virgin".

No matter how implicit it was what "V" stood for, the public on multiple continents did not identify with it and arguably still does not. In statements and ads, V Australia is sometimes referred to as a "Richard Branson airline".

Although Australia long rejected Singapore Air's fifth freedom request, the carrier still blocked the use of "Virgin", which many, including sources at Virgin Blue, saw Singapore Air doing out of spite.

Recently the conversation has changed and perhaps Singapore Air isn't a curmudgeon after all. According to sources familiar with the situation, Singapore Air is concerned of being affiliated with a carrier that has low service (and not just by Singapore's standards).

A Virgin Blue spokesman says, "All negotiations regarding the use of Virgin are a matter for Virgin Management not Virgin Blue." Another source familiar with the situation says "arrangements" have been made with Singapore Air over permitting Virgin Blue's future identity to include "Virgin".

Changing Virgin Blue's identity raises the question how much of the deeply-entrenched Virgin culture Borghetti will shed in a move to win more of the corporate market and help the frat house airline become a respectable twenty-something professional.

Quelling concern, Hulsbosch says in a statement, "Our brief is to take the brand to a new level of modern sophistication, keeping with the brands [sic] contemporary young spirit. It will be unmistakably Virgin with a fresh and innovative feel that also knows how to have a little bit of fun." Borghetti says Hulsbosch will create "an identity that can stretch across both the leisure and corporate sector."

In appointing Hulsbosch Borghetti has again called on his Qantas connections: in the 1980s Hulsbosch joined Qantas's then-design house Lunn Design and more recently re-designed on his own the Qantas kangaroo so it would fit on the carrier's A380. (As the superjumbo's entire horizontal stabilizer moves up and down, it would have amputated skippy's legs.)

Between introducing A330s, a new domestic product, and a reinvigorated international network, Borghetti has a lot on his plate. Fortunately Hulsbosch is known for brevity.

Matthew Benns in The Men Who Killed Qantas writes that then-Qantas CEO Geoff Dixon dispatched Hulsbosch to Toulouse to see if the Qantas 'roo would fit on the A380. "Hulsbosch walked back into [Dixon's] office two weeks later and placed on Dixon's desk a hand-drawn cartoon of a kangaroo sitting in a wheelchair."

But brevity and design come at a price: Benns estimates Qantas spent $2 million on the new 'roo, which Hulsbosch professes took ten minutes. Perhaps to offset the cost Borghetti could follow the lead of any true aviation geek and collect Virgin Blue items and once the new brand is introduced, sell the goods on eBay.