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The British Airways ‘Landor’ Boeing 747 retro livery takes off

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The third repainted aircraft celebrating BA’s 100th anniversary took to the skies yesterday.

A Boeing 747 has been repainted in what is known as the ‘Landor’ livery (named after the firm that designed it) used between 1984 and 1997.

British Airways boeing 747 Landor livery

This aircraft originally had this livery when it entered service, and has been given back its original name – ‘City of Swansea’ – for the occasion.

British Airways boeing 747 Landor livery

It landed at Heathrow yesterday morning from the paint shop in Ireland and was immediately sent off to Miami.  It will retain the paint scheme until the aircraft is retired in 2023.

British Airways boeing 747 Landor livery

I have scattered a few pictures throughout the rest of this article.  There is one further repainted aircraft to come, which will feature the Negus design.  This was used immediately before Landor and has some similarities to it.

British Airways boeing 747 Landor livery

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Comments (112)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Peter 64K says:
    10 Mar10 March 05:29

    You’d hope the crew wouldn’t forget to announce something like wifi when it’s only on 3 aircraft. You’d hope they’d be excited.

    • Andrew says:
      10 Mar10 March 07:44

      BA crew don’t tend to get excited about anything other than their final landing of the day.

    • TheSkintTraveller says:
      10 Mar10 March 07:49

      Hope we don’t find Canin crew on their smart phones when they should be serving customers.lol…😃

    • Lady London says:
      10 Mar10 March 13:37

      Especially as, the way we board planes mostly these days at major airports is off an airbridge not off the ground. And so, unless the crew announces it, most of us won’t get to turn around and SEE the livery on the aircraft body, at the bottom of the steps when we get off. And lots of deplaning is via an airbridge where there;s only a tiny window to see part of the fuselage too.!! so we could be flying on the old livery, and not have a clue….. !!

      • TGLoyalty says:
        10 Mar10 March 14:12

        You can see it from the windows when you are waiting to board?

    • Jon says:
      10 Mar10 March 17:39

      I think its on more than three aircraft.
      I used it on a BA A380 the other week – there was no mention of it, I just looked for it myself and signed up for an hour costing £4.99.

  • Roger says:
    10 Mar10 March 05:29

    Wildy OT on a Sunday Morning:

    There was some chatter about paying Stamp Duty Land Tax directly, bypassing Solicitor/Conveyance firm. Any one managed to do it successfully?
    Any pointers appreciated.

    Solicitors I have dealt with in past (pre HFP days) / plan on dealing are looking to get bank transfer into their account (client account of course)

    • John says:
      10 Mar10 March 06:57

      Come on, all the info is easily found on HMRC website: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/pay-stamp-duty-land-tax#online-with-a-debit-or-credit-card and is the same info the solicitor would use if paying it for you

      Just tell the solicitor you want to do it yourself. You need to pay the whole amount in one go.

      • TGLoyalty says:
        10 Mar10 March 07:44

        Since it says you must pay in one go and personal credit cards are not allowed what are people using because daily cap on Curve wouldn’t allow a payment as large as most stamp duty bills

        • Roger says:
          10 Mar10 March 08:04

          Looks like a no go with Curve, as it needs to be in one transaction!

          Does Tesco Debit card earn any points paying HMRC for SDLT?

    • Alex W says:
      10 Mar10 March 08:23

      I have done this in approx August 2017 and I was able to pay across 2 separate transactions. I used an IHG premium card and earned 2 free nights anywhere worldwide.

      My solicitor was adamant they were paying SDLT because they were also acting on behalf of my mortgage lender who would refuse to lend until the SDLT had been paid (even though the tax is not officially due until 30 days after completion). The solicitor sent me a completed SDLT1 form and asked me to pay them a bank transfer.

      What I had to do was order a paper SDLT1 form from the HMRC website. When it arrived in the post I copied across all the correct information from the solicitor’s version. On your SDLT1 form there is a unique code which you need to input when you pay HMRC. Make a note of it before posting the form back.

      Once paid I sent a copy of the form and the 2 receipts to the solicitor along with a letter explaining what I had done and why. I.e. there was no money laundering going on and my sole intent was to get a free holiday!

      • Froggitt says:
        10 Mar10 March 08:30

        Ahhhhh money-laundering. Maybe thats why my accountant asked why I had paid the quarterly VAT bill with a personal card, rather than through the company bank account

        • Ciaran McNulty says:
          10 Mar10 March 17:47

          Oh can you do that? Like a fool I’ve been paying via BACS

      • Benylin says:
        10 Mar10 March 11:14

        Alex thanks for this info, sorry but I’m a bit confused, I thought HMRC didn’t accept credit cards though?

        • Rob says:
          10 Mar10 March 11:59

          They did in August 2017.

        • Alex W says:
          10 Mar10 March 12:23

          Don’t they still accept business and corporate credit cards? You can still use Curve but a single transaction is limited, mine is £3750. Could try multiple transactions, I got 2 to work, don’t know if more is possible. Perhaps you could do the rest via bank transfer if it doesn’t work. Come to think of it you could use Revolut for that.

        • The Savage Squirrel says:
          10 Mar10 March 13:09

          They do accept business/corporate credit cards. You can still charge a fee for this, and the fees are high enough that you’d never want to use one normally.

  • Kai says:
    10 Mar10 March 06:47

    Was on LHR-IST Friday and there was wifi on board.

  • Craig says:
    10 Mar10 March 06:56

    OT: Asked the other day but quite late so probably missed by many, apologies for reposting. Has anyone used the Amex lounge at the O2 recently, I see it’s now first come first served? Also, has anyone been after a show, staying at the IC so don’t need to rush when the concert finishes?

    • Spurs Debs says:
      10 Mar10 March 08:23

      I used it last August, son and wife had a cocktail I had a mocktail, grandson had lemonade can’t recall how much I tend not to look so I don’t gulp at prices.
      Was a pleasant half hour away from masses but it wouldn’t bother me never to go again.

    • Matt says:
      10 Mar10 March 08:26

      I went last year and thought it was a very pleasant place to chill before further chilling in the Starwood box! I wouldn’t have thought overcrowding would be an issue seeing as it’s limited to Amex cardholders and/or box users, and you have to pay for the food and drink.

    • Craig says:
      10 Mar10 March 09:59

      Thanks all.

  • Dwadda says:
    10 Mar10 March 07:05

    I don’t bother with Internet on planes. However I frequently (well a couple times a year) get stung when leaving my phone on and roaming is turned on. Some airlines (I have not been hit by BA) offer up their own ‘cell tower’ that allows calls and text messages as well as £6/MB data. Lovely, the phone syncs your email, whatsapp, etc. Thankfully there is a £40 data limit on UK mobile plans. Yes, I should turn on airplane mode… But sometimes I forget and the phone is in my carry-on, and I am not at an aisle and then forget. Best always to remember as part of the boarding ritual.

    Also, I use Three because of free roaming in 71 countries. I don’t begrudge them the odd £40 mistake. Every month they text me my savings due to GoRoam. Last month it is was £1800. I think that expending charges on roaming relaxes the limit on the days you can be abroad? Or was that vodafone?

    • Lady London says:
      10 Mar10 March 13:47

      No it doesn’t relax the limit. It’s a hard limit that they will tell you is governed by number of days they are contracted to be able to use with the remote provider. Believe me it’s a hard limit. And does not makes sense in these days of personal and business mobility. Would be better if they can find a way to charge for it rather than just stick to the number of days. Offering to pay does not lift the number of days limit.

      If anyone has had a better experiene on this with Three or any other UK network, please let me know!

      • TGLoyalty says:
        10 Mar10 March 14:18

        Unsure what this hard number of days is and what network we are talking about

        But the comment above about £40 cap including Vodafone Roam Further fees is true I had mine set to £40 and went away for a week and had to lift it to continue using the roam further service.

        50 GB a month data, was actually given 100GB more as a Vodafone reward just before I left, and only £6 a day to use it outside of Europe I streamed everything and didn’t even worry about wifi anywhere.

    • the_real_a says:
      10 Mar10 March 14:27

      Why dont you just switch off the roaming setting, then your phone will not connect except for your home network?

    • xcalx says:
      10 Mar10 March 16:15

      Last November I was in St Martin (Caribbean Island which is included in the 3 package) Got a message from 3 welcoming me to Antigua. So didn’t bother using phone.

  • Jovanna says:
    10 Mar10 March 07:25

    No sign of the Utopia livery? Not everyone hated it.

    • Froggitt says:
      10 Mar10 March 08:32

      Mrs T did

      • Mark2 says:
        10 Mar10 March 09:17

        So did I

      • RussellH says:
        10 Mar10 March 17:08

        I thought that TV clip of her covering the tail fin of a model plane made her look really quite petty..
        Sadly, faqr too many people in this country still seem to worship her.

    • Lady London says:
      10 Mar10 March 13:49

      For me, that was when British Airways”lost it”.
      And remember how quick Richard Branson was, to pick up and make Virgin tails look more British, then British Airways’s own planes.
      No it wasn’t just Mrs T. that hated it! Lots of us thought British Airways had finally “lost it” aiming for political correctness then.

      Like Coke Zero, it didn’;t take them long to quietly switch back, did it?

    • Leo says:
      10 Mar10 March 16:03

      +1 It was just ahead of its time!

    • RussellH says:
      10 Mar10 March 16:52

      Just to re-iterate, the Landor tail fin with Britannia looks dreadful – like something out of the 1930s. Nearly as bad as English pseudo-Victorian banknotes. I did not know it was called Utopia – but it did make BA look like an international airline, you know, “The World’s Favourite Airline”, not England’s Favourite Airline.

  • Stephan says:
    10 Mar10 March 08:23

    OT Been a keen follower of HFP but as I may be moving across the channel in Thea future I was wondering if there were any similar insighful blogs for Europe (ideally France /Switzerland/ Germany )?

  • Froggitt says:
    10 Mar10 March 08:28

    I bet if you asked 100 people, 50 would say the Landor livery is the current BA look.

    • Memesweeper says:
      10 Mar10 March 09:19

      Hardly surprising given the current one is instantly forgettable. They should reinstate a classic look!

      • Roger Wilco says:
        10 Mar10 March 10:56

        The Landor 747 flew over us yesterday on its approach to Heathrow. Old Deer Park in Richmond. My 7yo – who knows every airline and a thing or two about what looks cool – got it right: “awesome”.

    • Alan says:
      10 Mar10 March 12:11

      Well, if you asked me and one other person, at least 50% of us would sat that

      • Rob says:
        10 Mar10 March 12:21

        Given it is 20 years since the livery went, you may get 50% of the over-50s but not anyone else.

        • Leo says:
          10 Mar10 March 16:02

          Well there is that – but I reckon most normal people have no idea what most aircraft livery looks like and go solely by what\’s written on the side….

        • Charlie T. says:
          10 Mar10 March 20:21

          My wife and I are mid 30s – showed her the pictures and she was totally like “isn’t that what it currently is?”. After further comparison with the current livery she did admit that it looked a bit John Major era. Awesome, indeed definitive, livery IMHO.

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