PHOTO: The official transformation begins, as the former US Airways planes get the American makeover. (all photos courtesy American Airlines)

It’s the beginning of the end of an era.

The first US Airways jet to painted in American Airlines livery rolled out of the hangar today after an extreme aircraft makeover and flew its first flight.

For branding purposes, it’s an extremely important task. Obviously American won’t be grounding all of US Airways’ planes to get the job done, so in general a new paint scheme is done when planes are brought in for maintenance.

The entire process, from stripping to masking to prepping to washing to priming to painting, takes about a week on average per plane.

The plane took off from Charlotte at 6:07 a.m. EST and landed at New York's LaGuardia Airport at 8:01 a.m. EST. Thursday.

"Today marks an important next step in our airlines' integration and is a tangible way for customers and employees to see the result of our progress first hand," American Airlines president Scott Kirby said in a statement.

"The integration of our airlines, including painting the rest of the US Airways fleet, will take many months as we work to deliver value through this merger for our employees, our customers and our investors."

Check out the transformation below.

First, the stripping down of the livery.

Then the American logo gets painted on.

Next comes the tail transformation.

Finally, the familiar white paint is applied to the entire plane.

To check out the full transformation, check out American's Facebook page.

Follow me on Twitter @RichTravelPulse.