Nepal Airlines (RA) started as the Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation on July 3, 1958, staffed by 97 employees. It began flying a single Douglas DC-3 Dakota aircraft. Seven more DC-3s were added to the fleet between 1959 and 1964, while China supplied a couple of AN-2 Fong Shee aircraft which did not enter scheduled service.
In those formative years, the airline’s markings bore the visual grammar of royal patronage — the Akash Bhairav symbol, a Hindu deity regarded as the protector of the sky, was prominently featured alongside the national colours of red and blue that derived from Nepal’s unique non-rectangular flag.
If you look at the photos of Nepal Airlines’ DC-3s below, you can see that in some aircraft, such as the one registered 9N-AAC, the upper portion of the fuselage was painted predominantly white with red and blue hues marking the distinction with the lower section of the fuselage that was not colored and had its metallic shine.
In others, you can see that the aircraft doesn’t have any paint, barring the name of the airline just above the window. Irrespective of this, in both the design types, you can see the distinct triangular flag of Nepal in the empennage.
In 1966, a turboprop Fokker F27 was added to the airline’s fleet; in 1970, RNAC acquired its first Hawker Siddeley HS-748 (which maintained the same hues as the one in DC-3), followed by Twin Otters in 1971 and Boeing 727s in 1972.
The 1987 Livery had Red and Blue Stripes
The livery that would define Nepal Airlines for the better part of three decades was introduced in 1987, coinciding with the delivery of the Boeing 757 fleet. The 1987 livery featured red and blue stripes on the aircraft’s tail and the name “Nepal Airlines” in blue; it also portrayed Nepal’s nationality, religion, and national colours, with the symbol of Akash Bhairav. The red and blue hues could be seen across the engines of the aircraft as well.
Akash Bhairav is often depicted in Buddhist iconography as a large blue head with a fierce face, huge silver eyes, and a crown of skulls and serpents. The deity head is said to reside on a silver throne carried by lions, accompanied by Bhimsen and Bhadrakali on either side.
The Boeing 757 jets that carried that 1987 livery also flew to destinations as far as Frankfurt, Hong Kong, and London, making the scheme the most internationally visible iteration of Nepal Airlines’ branding up to that point. The livery remained largely unchanged for over 25 years, even as the airline’s name changed in 2006.
One distinction the livery had from the one in the DC-3 was the absence of the Nepalese flag in the tail. Nepal Airlines painted the fuselage fully white barring the name of the airline painted in blue colors just above the windows. Above the windows on the either side of the plane, the flag was painted adjacent to the name (in Romanized Script on one side and Devanagari script on the other). Aakash Bhairav was painted beneath the cockpit window.
“Royal” was Dropped from Nepal Airlines’ Name in 2006
In 2006, the airline dropped “Royal” from its name following Nepal’s transition from a monarchy to a republic. While the name changed, the core visual identity — the red and blue stripes, the Akash Bhairav motif, the basic colour palette drawn from Nepal’s national flag — remained intact for several more years.
A National Competition and A New Design Language in 2013 and 2014
The most substantive visual overhaul in Nepal Airlines’ history was initiated in 2013, when Nepal Airlines Corporation invited designers from across the country to submit proposals for a new livery. A total of 62 designs were submitted by 31 artists, among which the design of Bishwas Pokharel was selected by a five-member expert team comprising Lalit Bikram Shah, Madan Chitrakar, Swasti Rajbhandari, Nabin Joshi, and Ganesh Bahadur Chand.
The new design consisted of three basic elements, and the NAC’s name is placed on the body with a larger font face so that it looks strikingly elegant and bold. The new livery was set to replace the old one gradually, as the airline was acquiring six aircraft from China within four months and two aircraft from Airbus within 2016 for domestic and international flights.
Nepal Airlines’ new livery would have Nepalese flag placed on the tail while the red and blue stripes on the engines symbolise a bird’s wings. The key design elements of the 2014 livery can be summarised as follows:
- A stylised representation of the Nepali flag on the tail fin, incorporating the distinctive crimson red field and blue border
- Red and blue engine stripes intended to evoke the image of outstretched wings in flight
- A bolder, cleaner typographic treatment of the “Nepal Airlines” wordmark along the fuselage
- Retention of the Akash Bhairav symbol, preserving continuity with the airline’s decades-long iconographic heritage
- A white fuselage base that allowed the national colours to read with clarity at altitude
Nepal Airlines’ current livery features the Nepalese flag shaped as a tail wing made of the sun and moon with the national colours of red and blue.
The Boeing 757 was Nepal Airlines’ Most Visible Canvas
The Boeing 757 served as the longest-running canvas for Nepal Airlines’ corporate identity. The 757’s long, narrow fuselage gave the airline’s stripe design its most proportionally coherent expression, with the horizontal red and blue lines running the full length of the aircraft.
Aviation enthusiasts on Airliners.net commented that the new livery was a vast improvement, though some felt that just “a little re-styling” of the original design “would not have harmed the airline,” and that “the engine livery layout is a true misser.“
The Airbus Era: Livery Applied to a New Wide-Body Fleet
The new 2014 livery was painted onto new Chinese Xian MA60 and Y12e aircraft acquired by the corporation, marking the beginning of what was supposed to be a new era for Nepal Airlines. The livery found its most prestigious application, however, on the airline’s Airbus fleet. Nepal Airlines operates two Airbus A330-200 aircraft: one registered as 9N-ALY and known as “Annapurna,” and the other registered as 9N-ALZ and known as “Makalu.”
The wide-body Airbus A330-200 offered a substantially larger canvas than any previous aircraft in the flee. The Nepali flag motif on the tail fin reads with considerable presence on the A330’s generous vertical stabiliser.
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