China Eastern Airlines launches new logo

Photo shows the new logo of China Eastern Airlines Co Ltd. [Provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

China Eastern Airlines Co Ltd, one of the three largest airline companies in China, on Tuesday launched a brand new visual identity system replacing the old one that has been in place for two-and-a-half decades.

The system includes a new logo featuring the shape of a swallow, which consists of two capital letters C and E - the initial letters of the company's name.

Liu Tao, chief designer of the new visual identity system, said the new logo uses more curves and circles compared with the old one, providing an internationalized concept of the company.

China Eastern is currently one of the three major State-owned airlines in China - the other two are China International Airlines and China Southern Airlines. China Eastern is listed in New York, Hong Kong and Shanghai, and reported 88 billion yuan ($14.3 billion) in revenue in 2013.

The new logo and painting will be first applied to a Boeing 777-300ER, joining the China Eastern fleet this September, while changing of the entire visual system will be complete over the next five years.

China Eastern will have 20 Boeing 777 airliners by 2018, which will be the largest fleet of its kind in China.

The Boeing 777 fleet will be mainly flying transpacific routes between China and North America, which will be a major market for China Eastern over the next three years.