How to paint a plane: inside our aircraft livery

By Virgin Atlantic | 5 July 2026 | 6 minute read

Painting a passenger plane takes far more than a few enormous tins of colour and an equally enormous paintbrush. It is a precise meeting of science, engineering and artistry, where temperatures are controlled, layers are measured and every curve has been considered long before the first spray gun is lifted.

For Virgin Atlantic, there is another challenge too: making sure the finished aircraft looks unmistakably ours.

Credit: Airbus

The painting starts long before the hangar

Before an aircraft reaches the paint shop, our design and engineering teams work with the manufacturer’s livery specialists to plan every detail.
 

The design is modelled digitally in three dimensions so the team can see how colours, lettering and graphics will sit across the aircraft’s curved surfaces. It also helps ensure the finished livery meets strict technical, safety and regulatory requirements.
 

Not every part of an aircraft can be customised. Airlines can usually make their mark on areas such as the fuselage, tailfin, winglets and engine nacelles, while other sections must follow the manufacturer’s standard design.
 

The creative work happens within those boundaries — and often because of them.

Preparing the world’s biggest canvas

When a new aircraft arrives in the paint hangar, its fuselage can look more like a patchwork than a finished plane. Different shades of primer reveal the composite materials and protective coatings underneath.

Before any colour is applied, the surface is carefully cleaned and prepared. Areas that must remain paint-free are covered using specialist masking material designed to let solvents evaporate while stopping paint from passing through.

The hangar itself is part of the process. Temperature and humidity can affect how paint behaves, so both are closely controlled. Paint shops in hotter climates may even use different mixtures to achieve the right finish.

Six layers between the aircraft and the sky

A Virgin Atlantic aircraft livery is built up through six layers.

The first three are applied during manufacturing. They begin with a soft adhesive primer, followed by a firmer chromate-free primer. A third intermediate layer creates a hard surface and allows the colours above it to be removed more easily when an aircraft eventually needs new topcoats or a different livery.

The final three layers are applied in the paint shop.

First comes the basecoat: silver across most of the fuselage and a salmon-pink metallic shade beneath the red sections. Next come the main colours, including Andaro red, Andaro aubergine and the silver mica finish.

Finally, a clear coat protects the paintwork and gives the aircraft its polished appearance.

What makes Virgin Atlantic red glow?

The red used on our engine covers, wingtips and vertical tail is no ordinary red.
 

It is a highly reflective Andaro finish created by applying a translucent tinted lacquer over a metallic basecoat. Light travels through the colour, reflects off the layer beneath and travels back out again, giving the red its luminous, almost iridescent quality in bright sunlight.
 

Open a tin of the topcoat and it can look surprisingly clear. Its full personality only appears when the different layers work together.


Fun fact: The Andaro topcoat colour is based on nano pigment technology. Nanopigments are insoluble crystals with a maximum diameter of 10 to 80 nanometers. A nanometer is one thousand-millionth of a meter. A human hair is around 80,000 nm thick
 

It is also particularly demanding to apply. The red may require three or four coats, and even a little overspray can create a darker patch. When several painters are working across different sections of a large aircraft, achieving one perfectly consistent shade takes serious skill.

The secret behind the silver

Virgin Atlantic red may attract plenty of attention, but silver covers most of the aircraft.

Its subtle sparkle comes from a mica layer containing tiny ceramic particles that catch and reflect the light.

Together, the silver mica, reflective red and deep aubergine lettering create a finish that shifts gently in different conditions. The aircraft can look crisp and cool beneath hangar lights, then warmer and more dramatic out on the runway.

Decals being added to the aircraft

Logos, decals and the finishing touches

Painting the main colours is only part of the job. Hundreds of smaller markings must also be added across the aircraft, some as decals and others through stencils.
 

Many are safety-critical. Door markings, warning notices and technical labels must meet strict requirements for size, placement and contrast.
 

Then come the details passengers instantly recognise. The Virgin Atlantic wordmark stretches more than 34 metres along the side of the aircraft, while even the Rolls-Royce decals on the engines are more than 26 inches tall.

How long does it take to paint a plane?

Months of design, modelling and technical planning happen before painting begins and the exact time depends on the aircraft, the livery and the work required.

  1. Around 20 specialists will work on the aircraft.

  2. The painting itself can take about eight days.

  3. The full hangar visit can last around 20 days.

  4. The final inspection can take at least four hours

Virgin Atlantic Aircraft

The final inspection

Before Virgin Atlantic accepts a newly painted aircraft, our engineers inspect the finish against detailed technical drawings and manufacturer guidelines.
 

Gloss levels are measured using specialist equipment. The team also checks for paint runs, tiny bubbles, peeling, overspray and fisheyes — small circular flaws that can appear when paint pulls away from a contaminated point on the surface.
 

The inspection can take at least four hours.
 

Only when every detail meets the required standard is the paintwork accepted, from the largest sweep of silver to the smallest warning label.

More than a fresh coat of paint

A finished aircraft livery can look effortless as it catches the light on the runway.

Behind that shine are months of design work, tightly controlled hangar conditions, six carefully applied layers and a team of specialists trained to spot the tiniest inconsistency.

It is protection, engineering and visual identity wrapped around an aircraft travelling at hundreds of miles an hour.

And for the AvGeeks watching from the terminal window, it is proof that even the most technical jobs can have a little theatre.

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