Southern Airways Unveils New Purdue Livery

The airline is recognizing its new partnership with the university.

Southern Airways’ new Purdue University livery (Photo: Southern Airways)

[ Planes ]May 21, 2024 10:00 am ET

By Joey Gerardi

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.

An Alaska E175 wearing the special Washington State University livery (Photo: AirlineGeeks | Joey Gerardi)

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.

Southern Airways Express’ new Purdue University livery (Photo: Purdue University)

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.

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Joey Gerardi

Joey has always been interested in planes for as long as he can remember. He grew up in Central New York during the early 2000s when US Airways Express turboprops ruled the skies. He was so excited when he could drive by himself and the first thing he did with the license was get ice cream and go plane spotting for the entire day. He specializes in topics surrounding the Essential Air Service (EAS) program. He graduated from WMU with a degree in Aviation Management and Operations in 2022 and now works for a major airline.

Author

Joey Gerardi

Joe has always been interested in planes, for as long as he can remember. He grew up in Central New York during the early 2000s when US Airways Express turboprops ruled the skies. Being from a non-aviation family made it harder for him to be around planes and would only spend about three hours a month at the airport. He was so excited when he could drive by himself and the first thing he did with the license was get ice cream and go plane spotting for the entire day. When he has the time (and money) he likes to take spotting trips to any location worth a visit. He’s currently enrolled at Western Michigan University earning a degree in Aviation Management and Operations.
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