Is This Golden Plane a Marketing Masterclass or 24-Carat Gamble?

Airlines tweak seat fabrics, boarding music, and even fragrance in the eternal hunt for brand differentiation. But every so often, a carrier does something really wacky to assert itself. 

In Tokyo on Tuesday, Starlux Airlines unveiled the most literal embodiment of an airline at the top of the market: a widebody plane that is, for all practical purposes, gold.

The Taiwanese carrier presented two Airbus A350-1000 designs created in collaboration with Japanese artist Hajime Sorayama, one silver and one gold. 

Airlines have long treated special paint jobs – or liveries, as they’re known in the trade – as nice-to-have brand flourishes. Anniversary decals, national flags, sports partnerships, and cartoon characters are all fairly common.

But in an era where customer acquisition costs are climbing, and social media reach is increasingly pay-to-play, the airc