Since 2013, the low-cost airline Norwegian has had two very different versions of cabin crew uniform – one version was for its short-haul crew who worked on Boeing 737 aircraft and the other version was for long-haul crew who worked on Norwegian’s 787 Dreamliner aircraft. It obviously made sense at the time but now Norwegian has decided that it needs to simplify the look and introduce a unified uniform across fleets.
Norwegian introduced the different long-haul uniform to coincide with the introduction of its first Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The uniform was designed by Moods of Norway and the men’s tartan jacket and waistcoat, along with the Chanel lookalike women’s uniform made it instantly recognisable.
This is the current 787 Dreamliner crew uniform…
And this is the current ‘short-haul’ uniform
Photo Credit: Norwegian
But having two different uniforms just doesn’t make much sense anymore. First off, the Dreamliner fleet aren’t the only ones flying long-haul anymore – Norwegian has been using its 737’s for more and medium and longer range flights so the distinction is confusing, to say the least.
In fact, you could argue that having any distinction between cabin crew working for the same airline – whether that be short-haul or long-haul is confusing for passengers. The Moods of Norway uniform was deliberately introduced to differentiate the Dreamliner product but in general, it confuses the brand.
Any brand confusion was made even worse when Norwegian decided that as part of a cost-cutting initiative it would no longer issue new uniforms to crew who transferred from one fleet to the other.
The airline says that with more and more passengers transferring from short-haul to long-haul flights and vice versa, a single unified uniform will offer a consistent, simple and recognisable brand image for customers.
Most of the new look uniform has been influenced by the old short-haul design but some design elements from the Mood of Norway do make a reappearance – the skirt design and skinny ties being the most prominent survivors of the redesign. Other Dreamliner uniform features like the tartan and felt hats, however, have been banished.
Norwegian hasn’t yet indicated when the new uniform will be introduced or how long the rollout might take. It certainly looks like the simpler uniform will cost a lot less to produce – a big focus for the airline at the moment. Overall though, this isn’t a bad look at all.
