ABC International provides Southwest Airlines cabin branding with heart

By October 9, 2019 April 24th, 2020 Design, Featured

ABC International has been selected by Southwest Airlines to supply cabin branding elements of the airline’s heart logo onboard its Boeing 737 aircraft.

The branding element has been made of lightweight injected polycarbonate, varnished with aeronautical painting with a detailed focus on the distance between the different blue, yellow and red stripes to match the logo.

“Since the beginning, we were aware of the challenging scenario, considering the valuable customer we had the pleasure to work with,” commented Olindo Spatola, VP engineering and programs at ABC INTERNATIONAL. “Starting from SWA corporate colours, we manufactured several samples to, firstly, match perfectly the iconic yellow, blue and red of SWA and, later on, to assess the grade of polishing effect on the chrome base of the heart.”

SWA_rendering

In order to best reflect SWA’s logo and align the branding with airworthiness regulation and standards, ABC International’s team worked to select the most suitable materials. Finding that a conventional use of aluminium created challenges for achieving the desired chrome surface, the team found that a polycarbonate option would be most suitable to have both a lightweight solution and the required polished effect.

Spatola called the project a “prestigious achievement” for the ABC team, thanking Southwest for “believing in our capabilities” and the team for the “incredible effort in taking care of every requirement.”

The company delivered more than one hundred ‘Hearts’ to Southwest as part of the newest Heart Interiors, first launched in 2016.

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