Alaska Airlines previews new aurora-inspired look for global flights

Alaska Airlines this week previewed a new look for its growing long-haul fleet.

Gone is the image of an Alaska Native man on the plane’s tail, which the airline has said attests to its heritage of serving Alaskan communities.

Instead, the fleet of Boeing Dreamliner 787-9 jets serving routes to Europe and Asia will feature a livery inspired by the Northern Lights.

It also said a horizontal stripe along the fuselage was a nod to its look in the 1970s and ‘80s.

“Our new 787 exterior embodies Alaska’s transition to a global airline with beauty, grace and a nod to our heritage,” Alaska’s chief commercial officer, Andrew Harrison, said in a statement.

It said the Alaska Native image would remain on its smaller planes, and that Pualani — the Hawaiian Airlines logo featuring a woman’s face — would remain on Hawaiian Airlines aircraft serving the Hawaiian Islands.

The airline has four Dreamliners in its fleet, all acquired along with Hawaiian Airlines last September. Alaska added the smaller carrier’s 787 jetliners to its fleet and assumed its order for a dozen of the planes.

It’s used the planes to start building a slate of international destinations from Seattle. It previously announced new flights to Tokyo, Seoul and Rome.

On Tuesday Alaska added London and Reykjavik to the list. It said those routes would begin in the spring.

The airline says it will have at least 12 international destinations from its Seattle hub by 2030, served by as many as 17 of the Dreamliners, 13 of which have yet to be delivered by Boeing.