Running an airline is anything but easy. One thing that needs to be completed is re-painting of aircraft – even if there is not a change of livery. Peeling paint doesn’t give passengers a sense of confidence when boarding.
Obviously, airlines want to limit the time an aircraft is taken out of service to be re-painted (every minute down is money lost). This pretty rad time-lapse video shows the re-painting of a Emirates Airline Boeing 777-300. In the video, it looks like a piece of cake, but obviously takes quite a bit of skill and good timing.
This is just one of 21 aircraft that Emirates re-painted in 2013. Expect that number to increase in the coming years – the airline already has about 200 planes in service and another 500 (yes five hundred) on order and/or options.
Hat tip to Victor T for pointing this video out to us!
On Saturday November 24th 2012, Air New Zealand unveiled it’s all new Hobbit themed 777-300. The aircraft will operate on the Auckland-Los Angeles-London Heathrow flight (ANZ 2) to showcase the plane that will make its way back to Auckland and onto Wellington in time for the world premier of The Hobbit: an Unexpected Journey on November 28th.
Air New Zealand Chief Executive Officer Rob Fyfe says the imagery, which extends the full length of the 239-foot long aircraft, is simply stunning. ’œThis aircraft is going to excite passengers and fans of Sir Peter Jackson’s award-winning cinema fantasies alike when it begins regular Air New Zealand services between Auckland, Los Angeles and London from this evening.’
Hundreds of people stopped and stared as the aircraft landed and was pulled into the gate. The decal took approximately 400 hours to apply to the Boeing 777 jet. Besides the special All Black livery this becomes the world’s largest logo jet to date.
A detailed close up of Air New Zealand’s special Hobbit 777. Photo: Brandon Farris / AirlineReporter.com.
’œNew Zealand is the home of Middle-earth and The Hobbit movies will be hugely important to New Zealand’s tourism industry in the next couple of years as international tourists are inspired to come and see and experience for themselves the landscapes which have shaped the movies.’
Air New Zealand has a unique partnership with Warner Bros. and the Lord of the Rings series and this is not the first themed aircraft that the airline has done. Previously, the airline painted a Boeing 747 to promote the original trilogy and ANZ will launch a second flying billboard next year utilizing another of its long haul aircraft to celebrate the second movie in the trilogy, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.
Earlier this month, Air New Zealand released its most popular in-flight safety video to date. An Unexpected Briefing, which was created by the Academy Award-winning Weta Workshop and starred cast and crew members from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, as well as fans and Air New Zealand’s own cabin crew and pilots, has become a global hit with nearly 10 million views on YouTube since its release on October 31st.
MORE PHOTOS OF AIR NEW ZEALAND’S HOBBIT 777:
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