American Airlines Employees Choose New Tail Look For Planes

The vote is in at American Airlines, and the painters finally have direction on how to paint the planes.

American CEO Doug Parker opened the vote up to his employees and the results are in.

More than 60,000 employees voted and by a slim majority, 52 percent of those who voted wanted to keep the redesign that American announced nearly a year ago – the red, white and blue horizontal stripes on the tail to go with a slick silver cabin.

American took to Twitter Thursday to announce the decision:

Our people voted: We will retain our flag tailfin. Now we continue painting our fleet. pic.twitter.com/iuBCLvvub2

— American Airlines (@AmericanAir) January 2, 2014

Since we first reported the story, we heard from a number of readers that they liked the retro classic “AA” below an eagle silhouette look. The new look drew mixed reviews from the aviation press.

But, as Parker said when announcing the vote, he doesn’t believe passengers are choosing an airline based on the livery design (the plane’s appearance). So he left the vote up to his employees.

"We of course can't vote on every decision at the airline, but we do want input from all of you on issues that are important to your work lives," Parker said in a message to employees on Thursday.

The company will now move forward with repainting more than 1,100 American, U.S. Airways and U.S. Airways Express planes with the new look.