FRESH out of the paint hangar at Boeing in Seattle is this first B787-9 Dreamliner to be delivered to launch customer Air New Zealand, revealing the carrier’s striking new-look livery.
Painted in a distinctive black scheme, it features the iconic official New Zealand fern logo.
“It’s great to see the Koru and the beautiful New Zealand fern emblazoned on this aircraft,” says captain David Morgan, chief flight operations and safety officer at the airline.
“This will soon be the first -9 [version of the] aircraft anywhere in the world to operate commercially and I think it will instill a sense of pride in Kiwis and turn heads when it touches down at airports throughout Asia and the Pacific,” he adds.
It is the first to feature the distinctive black version of Air New Zealand’s new-look livery design, with the white variant having been gradually rolled out across the airline’s domestic fleet in recent months.
While the majority of Air New Zealand’s fleet will eventually feature the white version, a limited number will be black.
Air New Zealand plans to utilise the new aircraft on its Auckland-Perth route later this year. It has 10 B787-9s on order.
