Brussels Airlines has confirmed that its next Belgian Icon livery will be dedicated to the Atomium, a famous atom-shaped landmark located on the outskirts of the Belgian capital.
The design was selected from the five finalist proposals, which had been selected from nearly a thousand entries submitted by the public as part of an open contest.
Brussels Airlines has been running the Belgian Icon initiative for a number of years, selecting a limited number of aircraft to represent world-famous Belgian cultural icons through a special livery and cabin interior decor.
Past examples of the Belgian Icon series have included aircraft dedicated to Tintin, the Smurfs, René Magritte, and painter Pieter Brueghel the Elder.
The current edition of the program was launched in August 2024 with a call for proposals. During the following four weeks, Brussels Airlines received more than 900 proposals, which were then narrowed down to 15 by a jury selected by the airline.
The next stage of the initiative involved a popular vote to choose five finalists out of the remaining 15 designs. Between October 4-11, 2024, more than 50,000 people from all over Belgium (the contest was only open to Belgian residents) cast their votes.
In addition to the Atomium, which was built for the Brussels World Fair of 1958, the other four proposed designs depicted comic book hero Lucky Luke, a field of poppies, evocative of First World War battlefields, cycling, which is a popular sport in Belgium, and horseback shrimp fishers, a reference to a traditional activity that takes place in the Flemish coast.
The winner was then selected by a jury, which included several independent personalities, as well as Brussels Airlines CEO Dorothea von Boxberg and its Head of Marketing, Michel Moriaux.
The winning proposal is the work of Thomas Faes, a 44-year-old architect from Wallonia who is said to have admired the rather unique monument since childhood.
In addition to seeing his winning design painted on one of the A320 aircraft that Brussels Airlines expects to receive in early 2025, Faes will also receive business class tickets to travel anywhere in Europe with a companion every year for the next five years.