Don't be surprised if you still see US Airways planes flying around

The merger between American and US Airways has moved along swiftly, and the airline has done a good job of taking precautions to reduce any potential snags for consumers. But there is one thing that will stick around for another year or so longer, and that is the US Airways brand.

When airlines come together, they try to unify their branding as fast as possible to reduce customer confusion, but when it comes to repainting the planes, airlines prefer to paint them during their regular maintenance checks, rather than pulling them out of service just to repaint them. And it's not just the exterior of the aircraft that needs to be updated: it's also the seat covers, the bulkhead colors and other interior features, too.

According to blogger Brian Sumers, American is expediting the process, because otherwise, it could take as long as seven years if it waited for its new fleet to go through regular maintenance checks. Instead, American plans to have all US Airways mainline planes painted by mid-2016, and US Airways regional jets will be painted by the end of 2016. Other branding updates, such as the interior of the planes, may take longer.

Sumers says that it can take about 10 days to paint a narrowbody plane, and the process takes five separate coats of paint. He also notes that some airlines use decals on their aircraft tails, but American actually paints the stylized flag onto the tail. Here's a time-lapse video of a US Airways plane being repainted:

American is also updating its own livery as well, so there are actually three separate paint schemes flying around at the moment: the US Airways brand, the old American brand and the newest American brand, which will be the sole color scheme going forward.

American spokesperson Joshua Freed told RWV that all of the former US Airways widebody planes have now been painted in those new American colors, and half of the narrowbody planes have gotten updated paint jobs as well. American's old logo will take until early 2018 to disappear completely, and US Airways-style interior accents will disappear completely by 2018.

So don't be surprised if you see the US Airways logo on your plane, even though your ticket says American. Some things just need a little more time!