Emirates is gearing up for the Dubai World Expo 2020 by painting 40 aircraft in its fleet with special liveries to celebrate the event. The airline today unveiled the first aircraft to sport the new artwork – a Boeing 777-300ER with the rest to follow in the coming months and years before the Expo gets underway.
The Dubai Expo 2020 will be the first such event to be held in the Middle East – the concept dates back to 1851 when the first World Expo was held in the iconic Crystal Palace in London. The original event brought countries together to celebrate the many inventions of the Industrial Revolution.
The huge Dubai Expo site will cover a 4.38km square site with pavilions from 180 participating countries. The themes for the expo are Opportunity, Mobility and Sustainability under the overarching theme of the event: ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’.
The first Emirates livery celebrates the ‘mobility’ theme – to highlight the Dubai-based airline’s role as a “connector of people, places and opportunities.” The livery highlights the Expo 2020 logo, inspired by an ancient gold ring which was excavated in Dubai.
“Expo 2020 Dubai will be an important platform facilitating a global exchange of ideas, collaborations and partnerships across a range of industries and domains,” explained HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates and the ruler of Dubai.
He continued: “Emirates is gearing up for this landmark occasion and championing the vision of ‘Connecting Minds and Creating the Future’ through the new Expo 2020 decals that will be installed on our aircraft.”
The first design spans over 37 metres in length and is 12 metres wide. It took a team of 6 over 84 hours to complete the mammoth paint job.
It’s now just 10 days before the Dubai Airshow gets underway and with it, anticipation builds for some important announcements from Emirates. The airline has already said it will unveil a brand new First Class suite for its Boeing 777 fleet and plans to launch new cabin interiors for the rest of the fleet.
There’s also been plenty of speculation that Emirates is going to announce a major aircraft order. Some analysts expect this to be for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner although there have even been rumours Emirates could become the launch customer of the yet to be designed Boeing 797
