HK Express, which is a Hong Kong-based low cost carrier that was acquired by Cathay Pacific in 2019, has this week announced a rebranding. Admittedly us avgeeks are often resistant to livery and branding changes, but I actually think this one is particularly not good…
Continue reading: HK Express Rebrands With New Livery & Strange Slogan
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Have to say, but the new livery is a huge downgrade from the old. There are plenty of LCCs — past (WOW air), present (Peach of Japan) and future (Bonza of Australia) — which do a great job with purple liveries. That skyline was instantly distinctive and so HK.
Off-topic, but it would be great if you could cover Vistara’s special 8th anniversary flight where an A321neo drew a number 8 in the sky. I know you really love those things!
My immediate thought with “Gotta go!” is … they are targeting customers that are fleeing Hong Kong to move elsewhere? Very weird slogan.
It's a low cost airline. No one cares what the planes look like. They only care about the price.
The word on the street is their new slogan is more relevant to all the Hong Kong based pilots. “Gotta Go” to Emirates. “Gotta Go” to Atlas. Don’t really care where, just “Gotta Go”.
“Gotta Go” is a perfect match with the new logo which looks like a stylized colon tied into a knot.
It’s only a logo. What one should be asking is what the onboard experience is like. Does the rebranding confuse you? There are huge letters H & K in the livery as before. The logo is an “e” as in express. Not much to miss here.
Maybe as part of their cost-cutting measures, they'll eliminate the toilets on the plane, replacing them with another couple rows of seats. When the planes land, "Gotta Go" is what everybody will be saying...
He didn’t say the rebranding was “confusing,” he said it was dull and generic, which is true.
Cathay Dragon (formerly Dragonair)’s actual dragon livery was my favorite, much more so than the maroon Cathay tailfin
If you’re stuck on the job and gotta go, download the gotta go app. “My man’s gotta go!”
I have been into designing liveries as a hobby for a few years now. I have nothing to say about this livery change. They went from what I thought was one of the best LCC liveries to something generic and ugly that reminds me of Lufthansa and countless other awful rebrands. The whole branding concept seems very lazy, like the people behind it just didn’t care. After Cathay Pacific changed their livery years ago and GBA was founded, HK Express was the only remaining Hong Kong based airline with a good livery, and now that is going away. It’s a shame that they think it’s “gotta go”. I guess it’s representative of the state of things in Hong Kong these days.
Firstly, the original HK Express lacked a logo. The so called standard livery was not in fact, but a special livery.... an updated, purple version of the Hong Kong Asia World City livery won by Cathay's 747-200 previously.
Secondly, this is Peach Hong Kong. HK Express adopts a variant of the Peach livery similar in style to NokScoot's.
Thirdly, it's actually a hidden Mickey, wink. Similar to Peach's function for Tokyo Disney resort, HK Express will do the same for Hong Kong Disney resort.
I agree. I like the old one better. But why the change now? They should've kept the tail design and just change the font for "HKexpress" and removed the red. It seems like they want to highlight "express" over "Hong Kong."
I see a merger in their future...perhaps with Hungarian carrier Wizz Air? (Remember to flush! )
They reversed Hong Kong in the photo; they used a negative image.
Didn’t someone at the airline, like, verify that Hong Kong is actually Hong Kong during proofing?
Nope.
I guess they’d have to increase prices if they paid for that.
Is it perhaps possible that this works better in the context of HK/Chinese culture than American ? If so, wouldn't that be the point ?
I thought the one with the city is the new livery like WTF, THAT'S COOLER ENOUGH, for once, I agree the new livery is kinda dull
"Personally I find HK Express’ rebranding to be extremely boring and predictable."
Extremely boring and predictable is Hong Kong in a nutshell.
Was born there, lived there and worked there for periods of my life, things went downhill when the pool of people running the city were left with yes men and women. The people who were capable even slightly all left.
The company I operate (LIFT Aero Design) designed the current HK Express logo, livery, cabin and uniform. We too are sad to see the Hong Kong skyline tossed, as it gives the airline instant recognition and clear differentiation throughout Asia, and communicates "Hong Kong is still relevant". (In reply to a reader's comment, no, the design had nothing to do with Cathay Pacific's special livery.)
It was a tremendously rewarding project, and we truly appreciate the kind words about our design.
Going from a unique livery to being a boring and non descriptive one- don’t they poll a market first
I love the new branding. It is straight forward with bright and attractive colouring. ❤️❤️