Airlines coming out with special liveries is always fun for the AvGeek community. It’s even more exciting when aircraft are painted to celebrate universities and colleges around the country, especially for those that go to, or once went to these schools.
Alaska has famously painted many of its aircraft into university and college colors with at least 10 of its Q400s wearing these paint jobs back when the airline operated the type, featuring teams up and down the West Coast from San Diego all the way up to Anchorage, Alaska.
Now that the carrier has retired the Q400 there are a lot fewer of them, with only two Embraer E175s wearing university liveries, both of which are for teams in its home state of Washington.
Airlines do have sports teams on their aircraft, but Alaska is the only one currently to feature specific university names and school colors until now. Southern Airways Express just began flights to Purdue University Airport in West Lafayette, Ind. on May 15, 2024 which operates to Chicago O’Hare, and is the first airline to offer services to the airport since 2004.
With these new flights, the carrier also unveiled a special livery celebrating the new partnership between them and Purdue University, which covers its Cessna 208 Grand Caravan EX. The aircraft features the school’s black and gold colors with the fuselage being painted, along with the tail, and even the wings which now sport a bright gold color.
Although the airplane has the university’s livery on it, it is not confined just to Purdue Airport flights, and AvGeeks have the ability to see the aircraft at Chicago O’Hare, as well as other destinations that the carrier operates to out of Chicago.
