Ahead of relaunching its commercial flights, Jet Airways has filed a complaint against SpiceJet for allegedly using its livery. In a letter to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Jet Airways said the use of its livery on some aircraft of SpiceJet could mislead the public. An aircraft livery is a set of comprehensive insignia comprising colour, graphic and typographical identifiers used by a specific airline.

But when Jet collapsed in 2019, some of its aircraft were leased to SpiceJet, which allegedly operated them without changing the livery.

“It has come to our notice that many of the airplanes continue to fly in full Jet Airways’ colours on the fuselage and tail with our name blanked off and overwritten by decals…Some of these aircraft have been involved in accidents/incidents, photographs of which have been widely circulated in the media,” said Jet Airways in its letter to the regulator.

“Airline liveries are fundamental statements of branding and corporate identity and all operators endeavour to make theirs as distinctive and readily recognisable as possible. Therefore, it is evident that an operator flying its aircraft in another airline’s livery has a serious potential to mislead the public about the identity of the operator, something which cannot be taken lightly. There is also a safety hazard as it can confuse ground staff and crew operating other aircraft about the identity of the aircraft in question,” the letter added.

comment COMMENT NOW