Yellowknife (Feb 28/03) - Canadian North airplanes have a fresh Northern look.

On Tuesday, the Northern-owned company revealed the first plane to sport its logo.

The Boeing 737 is the first of five 737s and two F28s in the fleet to have the polar bear, Northern Lights and midnight sun wrapped around its tail.

The planes also bear the NWT and Nunavut flags on the front.

The paint job is one of many projects the company has been working on since it purchased the airline from Canadian Airlines five years ago.

"Northerners own the airline and now it looks like a Northern airline," said Kelly Kaylo, director of marketing and sales, during a special ceremony at Yellowknife Airport.

The rest of the fleet will be painted during regular maintenance rotation. It takes about two weeks to re-paint and is quite "expensive," said Kaylo.

The planes should all be done within the next year.