Qantas Unveils Bold New Aboriginal Paint Scheme On its First Airbus A220 Which Will Be Delivered By the End of 2023
Qantas Unveils Bold New Aboriginal Paint Scheme On its First Airbus A220 Which Will Be Delivered By the End of 2023
Qantas Unveils Bold New Aboriginal Paint Scheme On its First Airbus A220 Which Will Be Delivered By the End of 2023
Qantas has revealed a striking new livery for its first Airbus A220, which has just rolled out of the paint shop in Mirabel, Canada and is due to arrive in Australia by the end of 2023.
The bold standout livery took 100 painters around two weeks to complete and features 20,000 dots, which is based on the artwork Minyma Kutjara Tjukurpa created by senior Pitjantjatjara artist Maringka Baker.
The aircraft is the sixth Qantas jet to feature a special Aboriginal paint scheme as part of the airline’s Flying Art Series, which launched in 1994 when a Boeing 747 jumbo jet was painted in the iconic Wunala Dreaming livery.
Qantas is due to take delivery of 20 Airbus A220s as part of an extensive fleet renewal of its QantasLink regional fleet. The A220s will replace ageing Boeing 717s, although the new planes will be able fly nearly twice as far as their predecessors.
CEO Vanessa Hudson hopes the A220s will be a “game changer” for domestic and regional travel, opening up new domestic and international routes that were previously out of reach of the 717s.
“These aircraft have the potential to change the way our customers travel across the country, with the ability to connect any two cities or towns in Australia,” Hudson said on Wednesday.
“That means faster and more convenient travel for business trips and exciting new possibilities for holiday travel. A whole new fleet type also means a lot of opportunities for our people to operate and look after these aircraft.”
The first A220 (registration: VH-X4A) still needs to undergo some routine post-production checks and will then start the journey from Quebec to Australia, where it will initially operate flights between Melbourne and Canberra.
The ferry flight from Canada, however, should take a little less time than the journey some of Qantas’ already retired 717s have been taking. Qantas has sold some of the planes to Delta Air Lines, which will use the planes for spare parts, but to get them to California, where they will be stripped down, has been quite the mission.
Back in April, one ex-Qantas 717 was ferried from Broome in Western Australia to the U.S. via Surabaya in Indonesia, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, Bengaluru in India, Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates, Hurghada in Egypt, Sofia in Bulgaria, Stavanger in Norway and Reykjavik in Iceland.
