While in Toronto, I quickly caught glimpse of a livery I was not a fan of. I wasn’t able to catch the name, but after a little research I found it to be Sunwing Airlines. It took a bit longer to actually find what their “real” livery was, since there were quite a few hodge-podge mixture of different liveries. Some examples: Viking, TUIfly, Hapag-Lloyd, Thompsonfly, Boeing Green, Euro Atlantic, did I miss any? It became obvious that this airline likes to lease planes. I actually had to go to their website to make sure what their “real” livery was and it turns out, it is the one I saw in Toronto.
With leasing out so many planes, of course they need to keep their livery simple, but this one just doesn’t work for me. I think what really bothers me is having the words on the fuselage and then on the tail where they are hard to read. I really like their sun logo and think it would have looked nice on the tail. Also, for some reason the engines being blue bothers my eye — they probably would have look better orange. I mean this is by no means a horrible livery, but a few simple changes could really make it shine.
Although fun for airline spotters, it does make it kind of hard for your customers to know your brand when there are so many different looks, but I guess that is the down side to leasing aircraft from airlines.
Sunwing was founded in 2005 and operates a fleet of about 20 aircraft (all Boeing 737-800s). According to their website they are, “Canada’s leading high frills, low cost airline.” They call their high frills the Champagne Service, which actually gives a lot of complimentary things not seen on most airlines today (like champagne, food, headsets and more). They operated scheduled and charter service to the US, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, South America and of course Canada.
Have any of you flown them and can describe how the Champagne Service was? Seems like if you can get past the mediocre livery, the flight experience is not too shabby and really that is what matters most right?
About mid-December, Boeing revealed a 777-300ER for Air New Zealand with special All Blacks (rugby team) livery. The livery looked amazing, but unfortunately the shots that Boeing shared where taken at night. On Friday December 30th, the 777-300ER (ZK-OKQ) took off for the first time, giving ample opportunity to get a better look at her. Here are some photos I wanted to share:
Air New Zealand Boeing 777-300ER (ZK-OKQ) taxiing at Paine Field on December 30th. Photo by Kristopher Hull.
Air New Zealand's Boeing 777-300ER with All Blacks livery (ZK-OKQ) had her first flight at Paine Field on the 30th. Photo by Liz Matzelle.
Undershot of the 777-300ER (ZK-OKQ) at Paine Field. Photo by Kristopher Hull.
Starting with their 3rd 787, ANA will paint all future Dreamliners with this special livery. Photo from ANA.
That chances are that most of you who read this blog, won’t have any trouble telling the difference between a Boeing 787 Dreamliner and other aircraft. For those who might not have the keen-airliner-eye, it could be a bit more of a challenge. All Nippon Airways (ANA), the launch customer for the 787, is trying to make spotting them a bit easier with an updated livery just for their Dreamliners.
ANA’s first two 787s were painted in a unique livery to celebrate taking delivery of the 787 first. Starting with their third aircraft, the airline will have the numbers “787” clearly painted on the side of the aircraft, where the rest of the livery will be unchanged. So when will ANA take delivery of their third Dreamliner? No one is certain, but Boeing is hoping before the end of the year (aka in two days).
Boeing has stated that they plan to deliver three more 787 Dreamliners to ANA before the calendar reaches 2012. This is yet another delay in the 787 schedule. Normally I am put off when almost any story that is written about the 787 includes the word “delay” — many times even in the title. However, this is a whole new delay and just because Boeing delivered their first two 787s does not mean there aren’t new aircraft hiccups that keep popping up.
According to the Seattle Times, Boeing was planning to deliver five to seven Dreamliners by the end of the year, which is still less than they origionally planned. Then the FAA found some issues with wiring and now Boeing is struggling to deliver any additional 787s to ANA before 2011 is over .
Originally, ANA had hope to take delivery of their third Dreamliner in November and wanted to use it on flights from Tokyo to Beijing in December. Instead, it sits at Paine Field, waiting to head to Japan. At least ANA is enjoying the two 787s they are currently operating (JA801A and JA802A). Airline spokeswoman Jean Saito told the Seattle Times that, “the first two Dreamliners, operating on domestic routes in Japan, have had a smooth entry into service.”
The rumors I am hearing is that Boeing is seriously planning to deliver at least one additional 787 Dreamliner to ANA in the next few days. That doesn’t leave much time — I only hope that the rumors are true.
How does Boeing paint their largest aircraft — well very carefully of course. This video, posted by Lufthansa, shows how Boeing went about painting a 747-8 Intercontinental (D-ABYA). The Lufthansa livery is very simple, but elegant at the same time. It looks right at home on a Boeing 747-8I.
HI-RES IMAGE (click for larger). Air New Zealand’s All Black Boeing 777-300ER comes out of the Boeing paint hangar. Photo by Boeing.
This is not the first aircraft that Air New Zealand has painted black for the World Champion All Blacks rugby team, but it sure is the biggest. Actually this is the world’s largest commercially operated aircraft to be painted completely black.
“It’s a sensational looking aircraft and will really turn heads at airports around the world,” said All Black’s No. 8 loose forward Kieran Read. “I reckon they should paint all their planes like this!”
The special paint job took Boeing just over a week (two days longer than a standard 777 paint job) and 14 painters worked 24 hour shifts — not an easy task.
“It was, without a doubt, one of the most challenging paint jobs we’ve ever done, but the paint team was up for the challenge and the results are absolutely outstanding. I am very proud of what the paint team has achieved,” said Jeff Klemann, Boeing Vice President Everett Delivery Center.
One might think the black paint would cause the aircraft to get too hot, but in reality, the 330 tvs on board the aircraft will create more heat than the paint job.
Air New Zealand is hoping to take delivery of this special 777-300ER in late January 2012 and it will initiate normally schedule flights shortly afterwards. By mid next year, the airline plans to have six additional planes painted in the all black livery, including two Airbus A320s and three Beech 1900D turbo-props. Here is also a video highlighting the creation of the new livery…
