Breaking: Doug Parker to let employees decide American Airlines tail

The other day I shared some links to news items related to merger day at American.  The most clicked outbound link was to an interview with Doug Parker regarding whether or not American will keep the new livery.  It’s the one question he gets in interview after interview.

According to Terry Maxon at the Dallas Morning News, it’s a question that Doug Parker has asked employees to decide: keep the new tail or go back to the previous double A one.

From Maxon’s report Doug Parker to let American Airlines employees decide whether to keep the new AA tail:

“As we build our new company, we want all of our employees to have a voice in who we are as an airline, and that starts with what we look like,” Parker wrote in the internal “Arrivals” newsletter. “As such, today we launched a survey for all employees of the combined company to vote on what we should do with our new look for the tail – keep the work that was done, or go back to the previous American.”

“People have already begun to ask me, “Which livery do you hope wins?” The answer is I honestly do not care. I think both look fantastic. As someone who began working at American in 1986, I, like many of you, am fond of the AA and think it reflects the proud history of this airline. But I also think the new branding looks great. It is bold, professional, fresh and represents American well. And the more aircraft I see painted in this scheme, the more I like it.

“What I do care about and what I am happy about is that we have found a way to let our team members provide their input to this important decision. So, it is up to you. I just ask that we get it done quickly, so we can start painting US Airways aircraft. Have fun and please vote – we want your input.”

Go here to read more.

What do you think? Keep the new livery or go back to the classic AA design?