Calling it the end of an era, Air New Zealand is planning to give a fresh coat of paint by replacing the iconic Teal Blue livery of the eight remaining De Havilland Dash 8 Q300 aircraft. All the eight jets will enter the paint shop and return to service in July 2023 sporting a black and white livery.
The iconic teal blue livery goes back to 1940 when the airline was known as Tasman Empire Airways Limited (TEAL) and later came to be known as Air New Zealand.
The Q300s are the oldest aircraft in the airline's fleet and, at an average age of nearly 17 years old, are slated for replacement, with the airline looking for next-generation sustainable aircraft to replace them.
The paint work will be carried out by Air New Zealand’s Engineering and Maintenance teams and supported by Airbus New Zealand at their facilities in Blenheim.
Brett Daley, General Manager of Engineering and Maintenance, ANZ Group said: “We're really excited about this opportunity to work with Airbus on the repainting of these planes which help connect our customers to the regions. It's fantastic to have the capability to do this in our own backyard. It is the first time the aircraft have been fully stripped and repainted in New Zealand and Air New Zealand has used these facilities. The aircraft were previously painted off-shore in Australia."
The complete painting work takes about a fortnight including stripping off the existing paint, repainting in the black and white livery, refinishing and reweighing before the aircraft can leave the hangar and return to service. So far, three of the Dash 8s have been painted while the next one will be in the hangar soon.