You wait for ages and then two come along at once. Virgin Atlantic has unveiled a corporate identity featuring the Union Jack as a way to underline its British credentials.

 

On the eve of the Virgin announcement, British Airways said it would bring back the Union Jack on the majority of its tailfins, in what appeared to be a climb down over its previous move to use ethnic tailfin designs.

 

The new Virgin livery features the Union Jack on the wingtips and fuselage.

 

Virgin's Richard Branson said the move helps position the airline as 'Britain's flag carrier'.

The design is based on three colours - red, purple and metallic silver.

 

It was created by Start Design and will be introduced by the end of next year at a cost of GBP2.5m.

 

Steve Ridgeway, managing director of Virgin, said: "While another airline made the blunder of ditching the most visible and easily recognised part of their identity on their aircraft - the tailfin - we knew from the outset how important it was to play up our most visible strengths."

 

The statement was intended to embarrass BA following criticism of ethnic designs unveiled in 1997, called Project Utopia. Baroness Thatcher famously covered the tailfin of a model plane carrying the new design with her handkerchief, describing the move as 'absolutely terrible'.

 

In a thinly-disguised bid to pre-empt Virgin, BA chief executive Bob Ayling said he was ordering the Union Jack be returned to over half of the airlines' planes with a design based on the flag used by Admiral Nelson in the Battle of Trafalgar, which is already used on its Concorde fleet.

 

It denied the move was related to Virgin's change, saying the decision was based on the airline's research with British consumers - who make up 40% of its customers - saying they wanted to see the Union Jack given prominence.

 

A BA spokesperson said: "We are British Airways - that says it all. Our tailfins reflect the fact that we are a British company, but also a global airline. The Virgin livery is a matter for them, not for us. Utopia has been a real success abroad and with younger people."