🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
An image of a mysterious "white label" aircraft without an airline logo parked at an airport in Chicago has caused a storm of debate on Reddit.
The image was shared by Reddit user crowbar_k in a post five days ago. The title reads: "Heading home on this weird white label plane." The post included several shots of the plane, including one where passengers appeared to be boarding the aircraft under a dark night sky.
As unusual and slightly ominous as it may have seemed, this aircraft was used for a commercial flight with Contour Airlines, a regional U.S. carrier, the poster, who shared only his first name Robert, told Newsweek.
The Contour Airlines flight number 3093 took place on January 7 while Robert was heading home from Austria following a semester abroad. The images were taken at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, while he was traveling from the city to Owensboro, Kentucky.
The plane used for this flight was the Bombardier CRJ200, one of Contour Airlines regional aircraft used for charter flights, which typically bear a plain white exterior, a spokesperson for the airline told Newsweek.
Noting that the color of the plane in the Reddit post is actually grey, not white, the spokesperson said the airline's logo was not painted on this aircraft "because we needed to get the airplane into service as quickly as possible." The original aircraft that was to be used for this flight may have been suddenly taken out of service due to an unexpected maintenance issue, in which case airlines resort to their spare aircraft, such as ones used for charter flights.
The latest post comes as air travel continues to see strong growth after coming to a halt at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In May 2023, globally passenger traffic was reported to now be at 96.1 percent of May 2019 (pre-pandemic) levels, according to the International Air Transport Association.
The spokesperson for Contour Airlines said the plane in the latest Reddit post went into service for the carrier around just before Christmas. The airline "wanted to make sure we have that spare plane available for operational integrity" during the busy holiday period. The company opted not to forgo the logo so the aircraft can be used immediately, without having to wait for the logo to be painted onto it.
Contour Airlines offers several charter flights for sports team, political campaigns, music tours, among other groups, and this particular aircraft has been predominantly used as an NCAA charter plane, the spokesperson said.
The interior configuration of the airline's charter planes and ones used for commercial flights are the same, the spokesperson added.
In a caption shared with the Reddit post, Robert wrote: "Tons of legroom. I hear these are normally used for charters, but today it's being used for a scheduled commercial flight."
Why Are Most Planes Painted White?
Most commercial aircraft are painted white because this exterior makes the planes "easier to keep cool in the summer months, because when the sun is beating down on them. It's no different than a black car, from a temperature perspective," the Contour Airlines spokesperson said.
"When we were designing our livery, we deliberately wanted the bulk of the fuselage to be white. For example, we wanted darker colors around the engine cells because that's where you see exhausts, and sometimes it can look dirty," the spokesperson added.
It's also not unusual for the nose of a plane, known as the radome, to have a different color than the rest of the aircraft.
When the nose of the airplane needs to be replaced, "which contains the avionics and navigational equipment," sometimes the color pattern of the replacement radome may not match the color of the rest of the plane, as the radome may have been purchased from another airline or a parts supplier. The plane may fly with this mismatched radome so that the airline can operate flights as soon as possible.
For this reason, Contour Airlines decided to opt out of having a stripe go across the radome of their aircraft and kept it white. This meant they wouldn't ever have to worry about the nose not matching the plane's latest livery design.
A mismatched radome on a plane may also be about cutting costs in some cases, the spokesperson said, adding that "if the alternative to putting on a mismatched radome is canceling a flight, the airline is going to go with a mismatched radome."
However, "it's really more about speed and protecting the integrity of the operation, than it is a cost-saving mechanism," the spokesperson said.
'You Work for the CIA'
The latest post has sparked much discussion on Reddit, with users sharing some wild theories behind the purposes of the aircraft in question.
Pristine-Swing-6082 posted: "You work for the CIA now."
User finallygotmeone wrote: "Area 51 [the highly classified U.S. Air Force facility], here we come."
Woupsea added: "This is the plane they put you on if you fail your random TSA [Transportation Security Administration] inspection."
User gdx commented: "OP [original poster] about to head to Mexico to start a war with the Mexican government."
Do you have a travel-related video or story to share? Let us know via life@newsweek.com and your story could be featured on Newsweek.
About the writer
Soo Kim is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. She covers various lifestyle stories, specializing in Read more