Northeast pioneered service from its Boston base throughout the New England states and into Canada in the 1930s. By the time Northeast merged with Delta on August 1, 1972, its famous "Yellowbirds" were jetting to Florida, the Bahamas and Bermuda, and across country to Los Angeles, California.

The most iconic "yellow planes" in the sky belong to Spirit Airlines. After a major rebranding in 2014, the American ultra-low-cost carrier adopted a bright, high-visibility yellow livery that extends across its entire fleet of Airbus A320-family aircraft. The design is intended to reflect the airline's "taxi-like" philosophy of providing a basic, unbundled service at the lowest possible price. While Spirit is the most famous for this look in North America, there have been other "yellow" airlines historically, such as the now-defunct Nok Air in Thailand (which featured bright yellow "bird-like" liveries) and HLX (Hapag-Lloyd Express) in Germany. In 2026, Spirit remains the dominant "yellow" carrier, and despite its recent 2024 service transformations which introduced more premium bundles, it has kept the bold yellow aesthetic as its core brand identity. The planes are often referred to as "flying bananas" or "taxis of the sky" by travelers due to their distinctive color and high-frequency, low-cost operations.