Air New Zealand’s first All Blacks Boeing 777-300 ER arrives in Auckland

Air New Zealand Boeing 777-319 ER ZK-OKQ (msn 40689) (All Blacks-Crazy About Rugby) PAE (Nick Dean) (1st 777 All Blacks), originally uploaded by Airliners Gallery.

Air New Zealand (Auckland) took delivery of this Boeing 777-319 ER registered as ZK-OKQ (msn 40689) on January 10. The Triple Seven, painted in the All Blacks special livery, arrived at the Auckland base two days later (see video below).

The aircraft’s all black paint job is overlaid with a design featuring New Zealand’s distinctive silver fern that extends across the rear of the aircraft up to its tail. The paint job was extremely complex requiring 14 expert painters at Boeing working in shifts 24 hours a day to get the job done.

Painting of the aircraft is part of Air New Zealand’s sponsorship of the New Zealand Rugby Football Union and the World Champion All Blacks rugby team.

Top Copyright Photo: Nick Dean. Please click on the photo for information.

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Bottom Copyright Photo: Colin Hunter. ZK-OKQ arrives at AKL. The All Blacks Airbus A320 is pictured in the background.